


Fang & Claw

by cobaltmoony, Miss_Aphi



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: ABO, Alpha Chief!Steve, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Anal Knotting, Anal Rimming, Anal Sex, Art By CobaltMoony, Assume everyone is naked unless otherwise noted, Author should see a shrink... probably, Blood Drinking, Blood and Gore, Body Dysmorphia, Bottom!Bucky, Captain America Reverse Big Bang 2018, Cock Warming, Competance Kink, Consensual Sex, Dark!Steve, Deepthroating, Dissociation, Dogs and cats living together, Dom/sub Undertones, Enthusiastic Consent, Face-Fucking, Fucked up imagery, Graphic depictions of violence - Freeform, Hair Pulling, M/M, Male Pregnancy, Male lubrication, Mass hysteria!, Minor Character Death, NSFW art in Chapter 4, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Nudity, Omega!Bucky, Omegaverse, Oral Knotting, Oral Sex, Oral Virginity, Pack Dynamics, Panic Attack, Pepper the Pyromaniac: an ode to the Extremis Virus, Plot With Porn, Possessive Behavior, Possessive Sex, Scar Worship, Social nudity, Stucky - Freeform, Werewolf!Steve, Zoophilia kinda sorta, hybrid!bucky, lycanthropy, messy blow job, mild body horror, pack mentality, steve's magical healing cock, top!steve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-09 15:42:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 29,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14718923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cobaltmoony/pseuds/cobaltmoony, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_Aphi/pseuds/Miss_Aphi
Summary: Alpha Chief Steve and an Omega, Bucky were a mated pair of lycans; mated since they were old enough to be allowed to in the White Star tribe.  When Bucky went missing, a suspected victim of a vampire attack, Steve grieved over him and their broken bond.  He was sure Bucky was dead.Years later, Steve leads his pack on an assault against the vampire coven responsible for his mate's death.Inside, they discover a dungeon where a vampire is being tortured.





	1. The White Star Tribe

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first entry into a Big Bang collection, and lemme tell you how daunting it was when I first signed up to write for it. And then extra daunting when I found that I had selected an artist that I have been stanning on for ages.
> 
> This work has been completely written, and will have one chapter posted daily until my [CapRBB](https://capreversebb.tumblr.com) "official" post date of June 17th.
> 
> A thousand, million thanks to my co-creator and cheerleader [cobaltmoony](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cobaltmoony/), who has created several pieces of artwork that will be showcased throughout this fic. I could not have done it without your constant cheerleading, brainstorming, and encouragement!
> 
> Ultra thanks to the amazing, wonderful, sexiest beta ever, [Nurse Darry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NurseDarry/) for making my shit make sense.
> 
> Extreme thanks to the sweetest [onelineinthesand](http://onelineinthesand.tumblr.com), who rooted for me in the beginning when I first signed up and was sure I could post the minimum 5k word count. Guess I blew that one outta the water, eh?
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

~ =★= ~

_You fret too much_ , the rumbly thoughts of his Omega settled into the back of Steven’s brain like a warm, sunny day sprawled out in a clearing.  White fur stood in stark contrast to the black coat under his neck. His Omega; his sweet, pretty wolf, was bigger than most Omegas - bulkier, and could probably pass for a Beta if not an Alpha wolf but for the delicious scent that permeated his fur.  Bucky’s snout was tucked under Steve’s muzzle, a paw resting on top of one of Steve’s with its digital pads flexing and squeezing every so often to further confirm that he was here, and he was fine.

 _I shouldn’t be going,_ Steve replied with an audible snort.  And who would blame him if he sat this raid out?  Bucky had just had his heat not two weeks prior, and his scent had taken on the delicious tang of motherhood that only amplified his natural musk of fresh snow and evergreen sap.  Bucky, of course, snorted right back.

 _You don’t go, and the whole pack will never let you live it down.  Go on, you fool, I’ll be fine._  Bucky insisted.  Were it not for the stirrings in his belly, Steve was sure that Bucky would have gone with him.  He usually did. But vampires were too dangerous, especially around a pregnant Omega. Something about their scent or their blood drove them practically feral.  He knew Bucky could handle himself. Hell, when Steve was a young pup, weak with bad lungs and had difficulty shifting between forms, Bucky had stuck by him, and had personally handled other Alphas that had made moves towards him in their youth.

Sighing, Steve rubbed the glands of his throat against the top of his mate’s head, and then bit his ear, tugging firmly.  Something like a chuckle settled in Steve’s brain, in that place where his mate communicated with him privately. With another tug, he got up onto all fours and disengaged from his Omega.  One last look back, allowing him to see Bucky’s tail tapping softly against the fur-covered palette by his hip, and his steely-blue eyes watching right back, Steve escaped their small hut through the overlapping flaps of soft leather.  The hut itself was built into an alcove, in a cave network that the ancestors of the White Star tribe had lived in for generations. As Alpha chief, he and his mate were given the alcove atop a small plateau that allowed him to leave the hut and survey the remainder of their village.

Without Bucky’s scent thick in his nose, he was able to think clearly and focus on the task at hand.  A nest of vampires had been encroaching on his pack’s territory, and that was not something that he could abide as the pack’s chief.  It was a sign of weakness, and it put his family in danger. His strike team was already assembled and prowling near the mouth of the cave in their wolf forms.  He knew they were restless. Like him, they worried about the safety of their lands and their families… while some of them were just itching for a fight to expel pent up energy.  They knew their roles, however. They parted for Steve as he padded forward through the throng. All it took was a howl from their chief to start the hunt.

The vampire nest was only a half hour’s run from the cave. Far too close to begin with.  Far, _far_ too close when it was breeding season.  He slowed at the front of his team fifty yards downwind of the vampire nest.  The scent that came with vampires was putrid, and one of the younglings in his team dry-heaved quietly at the rear of the pack.  Vampires reeked of blood, laced with the sulphuric scent of magic, and the faintest tinge of whatever they had smelled like while they were alive.

Steve dropped low and heard the soft _fwump_ ing behind him of his team following his lead. It took a while to shuffle forward on their bellies towards the nest, but they couldn’t risk alerting the vampires ahead of time.  Limiting their casualties while destroying the nest was the name of the game, and Steve had led enough failed missions to want to avoid losing anyone else. Their pack was finally at a healthy number after the last Alpha chief had nearly destroyed them.  He was not about to repeat that failure.

The building was not the usual locale for a nest.  It was a small cottage; quaint and homely, but rank with the diseased scent of vampire.  Vampires trended towards opulence and comfort, and not something so far out of the nearest village where their food supply dwelled.  Perhaps this was a nomadic nest that had come upon a cottage full of fresh blood to sustain them before they moved on. It was not unheard of… but most definitely rare.

Steve twisted his head back and chuffed at the front line, who immediately broke off and shuffled silently around the back of the cottage to ensure no creature fled via the rear.  The rest fell into shuffle behind him. Two windows at the front of the cottage offered an excellent entry point, and he moved just enough to line himself up to the one on the right.  To his left, Sam dug his claws into the dirt, preparing to launch his chestnut-coloured body through the other window.

Throwing his head back, Steve howled to the skies to launch the attack.  Inside the cottage, something was turned over, but he and Sam were already running, Sam only a few paces behind.  Shoving his large body off the ground, Steve led with the hardened top of his head, smashing through the window and landing bodily on a table, knocking it over with his weight and momentum.  Rolling through the movement, he ended up back on his feet as Sam crashed through the other window. There were at least six vampires in the small cottage, and the smell of blood and decay was almost overwhelming.  Human body parts were strewn haphazardly over the floor, and his fur was matted down from the blood that had spilled to the floor instead of down a throat.

 _Tch… a waste.  Vampires…_ he thought to himself with annoyance.  Humans were not particularly delectable, but they did in a pinch.  He much preferred the taste of boar, but the wasted flesh and vitae perturbed him more than anything.  Fuelled by territorial rage and now a healthy side of irritation, Steve turned around and chomped his teeth down hard on a vampire male’s thigh.  His teeth tore through clothes and skin, ripping through the femoral artery and crunching into the bone.

The taste of old blood and fetid meat was familiar in the worst sort of way.  The vampire howled in pain as Steve planted his forepaws and yanked his head up hard, pulling the leg out from under the creature.  He landed hard on his back, allowing Thor to tear the throat free. Blackish blood sprayed across golden fur, and Thor miserably spat out a fleshy lump of esophagus with a wet rumble of disgust.  Steve’s muzzle wrinkled with disgust and he gave the other Alpha a brief, apologetic whine.

Around them, the vampires were screeching and howling as they were torn to shreds.  Only one had escaped, slipping free out the back only to be brought down and dragged back inside by Tony and Pepper.

Blood and decay muted Steve’s ability to scent the air.  Raiding nests was old hat, but good gods could they become overwhelming if he breathed too deep.  The wolves in his strike team returned, dragging their kills into the middle of the main room’s floor.  Eight vampires in all. A small nest, but oddly large for a nomadic group.

Pepper’s strawberry-blonde fur shed from her body with a rush of fluid and the cracking of joints, that left her pale skin flushed and furless.  She rose to her bipedal form, shaking out the long, matching tendrils that were caked with dirt and a bit of the rotten blood. Tony kept close to her, chuffing once, though he stayed as a wolf with his black fur ruffled up to make him seem larger.  Pepper dug into the fireplace for one of the smaller logs that was lit, along with a kerosene lamp from atop the mantle. The other wolves left the hut as Pepper smashed the lamp next to the pile of bodies and lit the kerosene.

As if vampires didn’t smell bad enough, roasted vampire made the trio hightail it out of the cottage.  Flames began to lick up the walls, catching on cloth first and then spreading to the wood structure. Pepper dropped to all fours and shifted back, which got an approving grunt from Tony and a tug on her ear.

Steve barked, rough and low, sending the team back to the caves.  He lingered, only for a minute or two, to ensure that fire in the cottage would not be snuffed out.  For the safety of the lycan race - and yes, unfortunately, the vampires as well - Steve waited until the roof collapsed before turning and cantering after his strike team.

Within twenty yards of the cave’s mouth, electricity zipped down his spine - a warning.  A _threat_ .  He hunched down low and snarled, ears flicking wildly to try and track the threat, but coming up empty.  Instead, what he did hear was the piteous whining of… oh… _oh gods no_.

Bolting out of his hunched position, he made the rest of the way to the caves in record time.  The mouth of the cave was strewn with bodies of the Betas and Alphas left behind to protect the Omegas and pups.  The stink of vampire tainted everything as he padded forward, passing Sam, who was howling his sorrow to the heavens over the eviscerated body of his mate, Riley.

Numb and wobbly on all fours, Steve moved into the chaos of the cave network’s interior.  Huts were on fire. Pups dead under rocks or arrows. Younglings, some half-shifted, cut down where they’d been trying to shift to defend themselves.  Steve’s paws slipped through the muck of blood-wetted dirt as he scrambled forward, adrenaline suddenly surging.

 _Bucky,_ he called out, hysteria taking roost in his chest and spreading outwards.  He called his mate’s name again, louder, pairing it with an urgent whine that carried across the dull roar within the caves.  Steve slipped and slid his way up to the plateau. Bucky’s scent was heavy in the air, and there was blood _everywhere,_ dripping from above.

Steeling his nerves, he tipped his head up and spotted the tribe’s white star that had been scrawled into the rocks for generations above the chief’s hut.  It, too, was smeared with blood, an arrow sticking out of the center with a limp, black foreleg hanging from it. Dry heaving, Steve shoved beyond the leather curtains into his hut.

Their pallet was overturned, fur soaked with blood.  Three vampire bodies were torn to pieces inside, but… but no… no _Bucky!_  Steve howled to the gods in his agony.  The shift came over him as he lost control, tearing at his own fur until he was sobbing, throwing up in his bipedal form, and dragging his blunted fingernails through the bloodied earth.

~ =☆= ~

The remnants of his tribe had rebuilt what they could in their ancestral caves, but the first winter had been… difficult.  Their food stores had been low after being mostly destroyed by the vampires that had raided the cave while they strike team had been dealing with the infestation at the cottage.  A trap set by the vampires. He should have read the warning signs but he hadn’t. He’d been cocky, arrogant… and it had cost his pack almost everything. The few survivors had been too shellshocked to be of any use for hunting… and Steve couldn’t blame any of them.  It had taken considerable effort to leave his hut to hunt.

More often, he wouldn’t venture too far from the cave, and he would often go without food to ensure two remaining pups that had survived thanks only to the quick thinking of the Omega Maria, and the others that had lived, would be sustained.  He took extra guard shifts, extra labour shifts while they rebuilt, and would rarely sleep. The hut, even after being thoroughly cleaned, still smelled like his mate, and it hurt far too much to sleep there for a long time.

The first spring after their caves had been raided, a svelte, ruddy she-wolf arrived at the cave and sat outside, waiting for permission to enter.  Steve did not give it. Instead, he had met her outside, backed up by Sam and Thor - both of whom paced at the cave’s mouth anxiously. After shifting into the form of an equally svelte redhead, the Beta introduced herself as Natasha of the Crossbones tribe.  She had come to make an offer on behalf of her Alpha, Brock, after the similar destruction of her own pack.

Necessity and survival forced the packs to combine, but it was hardly an easy road traveled.  It was not unheard of for packs to merge, but was more common in instances where a chief was killed.  Not so in the case of the White Star and Crossbones. Steve and Brock had met in a neutral space between their territories to determine who would lead their combined pack.

Cold from the loss of his mate, unfeeling, he tore into Brock without mercy.  It wasn’t until Brock was on his back, covered in his own blood and mud, that Steve slowed.  Rather than tearing the other chief’s throat out, he bit down hard on Brock’s throat to leave deep gashes, scarring the skin, and tainting the Alpha’s scent with Steve’s in the process, while taking in the bloodline he carried.  Steve had immediately been inundated by the awareness of the Crossbones, who had howled in the distance with the realization their chief had been felled.

Brock had grudgingly accepted his role.  Maybe for the safety of the remains of his pack, or perhaps for his own life, Steve had never quite figured it out.  Maybe he never would.

For the most part, the merger of their tribes was seamless.  Brock’s pack proved to be competent hunters and were quick to make themselves useful in the rebuilding of the caves.  Their food stores and supplies were brought to the White Star and the pack began to heal.

Until one day, the ruddy she-wolf approached the White Star chief with news of the vampire coven responsible for nearly destroying them all...

~ =☆= ~


	2. By the Light of the Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _The vampires. I’ve found them._ It was all she needed to say. Natasha did not need to clarify which vampires, or how she’d found them. It had been three long years that Natasha had taken it upon herself to find them. She could hunt, sure, but there were others better suited for that role. As a Beta, the risk of childbirth was too high for her when their numbers were already so low. No. Natasha’s skills were infiltration and extraction, and thank the gods for that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 will be up tomorrow!
> 
> Thanks again to [Nurse Darry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NurseDarry/) for being the most amazing beta on the planet.
> 
> And the first beautiful piece of art by the ever-lovely [Cobalt Moony](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cobaltmoony/) can be seen in this chapter.

****

**_Three winters later…_ **

Steve was perched quietly on the edge of the plateau, his claws idly scratching into the stone, though he kept his eyes ahead, towards the mouth of the cave.  It was dark near his hut. The small fire he kept outside of the leather curtains was just enough to warm the stone more than light the entry to his home. It was easier that way.  He wouldn’t have to look upon the faded claw marks in the floor.

Below, the first litter born to the pack since the raids were being celebrated - a new beginning; a fresh start and a promise of the future.  It had been a difficult labour for Maria, spiritually more than physically. Sam was a good Alpha to her, of course, but it was a mating born more from necessity than a true bond.  At least, that was how it had started.

It was not something that Steve had asked of either of them.  He would never be so bold or expectant, even as their chief. At the very least… Maria looked well-pleased with herself now as she tiredly licked the head of one of the three born to her and Sam.  Sam was beside her, head low, fondly nuzzling at the bond mark on her throat.

The ruddy she-wolf sat beside Steve after having seemingly peeled herself from the shadows. He spared her a sideways glance, and she had the decency to keep her forest green eyes ahead to pretend she didn’t notice.  Steve huffed once; silent permission given to speak to the request she’d never asked.

_I’ve a gift for you,_ she began as her tail tapped expectantly where she’d wrapped it around her forepaws.  Some chiefs expected tokens from their packs. Steve was not one of them. Especially so after the failure.

_That’s not--_

_At least let me finish before you decline,_ Natasha interrupted brazenly.  She had Steve’s attention now. He shifted his larger body a little to better regard her, a paw between them that he put most of his weight on, his head cocked to the left, and his ears swivelled towards her.  The she-wolf had always been in complete control of her body. She didn’t often wag her tail, or express anything on her face. But there was a faint arch on her brow, and her tail was still. He dipped his head to encourage her to carry on.

_The vampires.  I’ve found them._  It was all she needed to say.  Natasha did not need to clarify which vampires, or how she’d found them.  It had been three long years that Natasha had taken it upon herself to find them.  She could hunt, sure, but there were others better suited for that role. As a Beta, the risk of childbirth was too high for her when their numbers were already so low.  No. Natasha’s skills were infiltration and extraction, and thank the gods for that.

_Where?_ Steve inquired, doing his best to tamp down his excitement, even though the tip of his tail tapped quickly beside his paw.  He had to remind himself to remain calm and objective. The last chief of the White Star had nearly brought their pack to extinction with his revenge fixations against the vampires.  It had cost him his own life as well as that of Steve’s mother and so many others. They needed to be tactful and wary.

_Inside the village, there is an old mansion to the east that shelters the coven.  The leader is the town’s mayor, Schmidt I believe his name is, but he lets his childe Alexander tend to most of the leadership duties with the vampires_ , Natasha explained.  The cold within Steve’s chest hardened further.  This was the intel he’d been waiting for. He didn’t care to know how Natasha had obtained the information.  It might melt the ice, and he didn’t want that. He needed that hardened edge to give him the strength to go through with his plan.  It was not going to be easy. If the conclave that the vampires resided in was anything like others he’d seen, there would be humans.  Maybe even human kit. They would be loyal to the vampires, bound by blood and magic to obey.

_Gather the strike team and meet me here…_ Steve ordered.  Natasha was gone in a moment, and Steve turned towards his hut.  No. Better to prepare outside the hut where he would not be reminded of his mate.

~ =☆= ~

They waited until the next full moon to make their attack; a time when they would be stronger and a small strike team could vanquish an entire coven in mere hours.  The fifteen day wait had Steve practically bugging out of his skin. He slept when Sam and Natasha all but pinned him down, and ate when they nudged food in front of him.  The rest of the time was spent between the nest and the village.

The mansion backed onto a river, and there were multiple points of entry.  Arrogant vampires - they never would anticipate a frontal assault and clearly did not, as there was little in the way of protection or guards beyond the weak humans who who owned the property.  He supposed he couldn’t judge. Up until a few years ago, Steve and his kin never expected a frontal assault either.

Steve’s strike team was broken into two - one to advance from the street the mansion sat on, and the other to come in from the river.  But he had been careful this time. His pack’s nest had been cleared out, temporarily housed elsewhere while the warriors and hunters were away to seek their revenge.  There were times when Steve told himself that the attack they intended to carry out was to prevent the same fate happening to other packs. But there were other times, in the dark of the night when he’d catch what he was sure was a whiff of Bucky’s scent in the old furs of his bed, that he knew it was vengeance.  Pure, unadulterated revenge.

Thor, Sam, Natasha, and Clint made up his team, and it was only the press of Thor’s and Sam’s shoulders on either side of him that kept him from pacing like the wild animal he was.  The sun had set some time ago, and now they were simply waiting for the moon to crest the trees and shine upon them. Steve had practically dug a hole for himself with the unconscious flexing of his paw in the dirt.  Waiting… waiting was the hardest part. But he’d waited all this time for it. A few more minutes…

Finally, the moon was high, the silver glow settling on his shoulders like a comfortable blanket.  The strength that came from the moon encouraged his movement forward. The rear door gave way under his weight, splintering off its casted hinges and hitting the floor with a loud crash.  There was no hope for a subtle entrance, anyway. He howled loud and strong as the four on his team entered around him and split up as they raced down the corridor while he went straight forward through the kitchen.

Everything within reeked of death, and he was forced to shallow out his breathing to avoid getting mouthfuls of the putrid scent.  He blocked out the sounds of human screaming from the front rooms where Brock and his team had breached the home. Soon enough, the snarling and cursing from vampires joined the dull roar.  Below all that though, Steve could hear hoarse screaming coming from below his paws.

Padding silently forward, Steve lowered his muzzle to the floor, snuffling along to track his way towards the cellar door.  Just as he reached it, the door swung open and a three-tailed whip swiped across his muzzle. Blood splashed across his muzzle as the skin flayed. He snarled and immediately chased the bound leather, biting down on it.  He threw his entire body weight sideways, rolling hard to wrap the whip around his own body and yank it free of the vampire’s hand. Dropping the whip from his teeth, he bounded forward, and once again used his body weight to knock the vampire down the stairs, crushing his throat in the process.

~ =☆= ~

He’d never experienced agony before.  Losing his forepaw... that had been painful.  But this was something different. Metal was pressing against the sensitive stump on his left side, and then it felt like it was being burned right onto his skin.  And there was nothing he could do about it. Flat on his back, his hind legs and remaining forepaw were stretched out wide. A band over his chest kept him still as the vampire over him pressed the metal into his skin.

Bucky howled in pain, but it sounded strange - disjointed and weak.  He pulled at his restraints, trying to claw his way from the silver that burned his joints and kept him from escaping.  The pain ebbed eventually, or he just got used to it. Teary-eyed, he panted and tried to clear his vision as he gazed up at the stone ceiling.  The tang of blood filled his nose and his mouth, making him gag with disgust, even as his stomach clenched with hunger.

“Very good -- the implant is already functioning perfectly," the smooth Germanic voice of the fat, bald vampire made his fur stand up on end.  He’d come to associate Zola’s voice with pain. Not once had he heard it and been spared. There was movement to his left as the bald bastard washed his hands, leaving Bucky bleeding on the table.

Closing his eyes tightly, he focused on the metal attached to his side.  Implant. What kind of implant? Opening his eyes once more, he moved his left stump and was staring at a metallic paw.  No, that wasn’t right. A human-like hand was in front of his face, made out of thin plates of metal that gave him the same articulated movement he’d seen from the vampires’ hands.  But… but how? He couldn’t shift into human form. He was an Omega. It wasn’t… wasn’t possible...

Zola leaned back over Bucky, lips set in a line of disgust as he tapped the fingers with a metal instrument that Bucky couldn’t identify.  It vibrated right up his arm and made him whine while it rattled into the bone. Bucky lashed out immediately, clamping the metal fist hard on the bald vampire’s throat.  Zola looked as shocked as Bucky was, but it didn’t stop him from squeezing, squeezing, _squeezing_ , until the metallic fingers broke flesh and he tore the front of Zola’s throat out.

Catching movement out of the corner of his eye, panic filled him.  Using the metal appendage, he tore at his restraints, praising the gods that they would allow him to touch silver without it damaging the metal hand.  One positive, he supposed. Freed of his bonds, Bucky rolled himself off the table, legs weak and unable to support his weight. He whined softly as he hit the ground on his knees - _knees?? -_ and the metal palm.  The metal scraped horrendously against the stone floor and made his ears ring, but the jolts of pain up his thighs to his hips, and into the stump of of his shoulder was an all new kind of torture.

His breath came in heavy gulps as he tried to get a handle on his panic, while simultaenously swallowing the bile rising in his throat.  Flesh fingers curled around the edge of the table as he pulled himself up enough to peek over the top. The sight of soft, pinked flesh was disturbing enough, but the sight of the massive wolf in the door frame, covered in blood, set him even further off-kilter, especially as it ducked its head and snarled.  Wait… he knew those eyes...

~ =☆= ~

The supine, naked vampire was covered in his own blood, and that blood was joined by the fat one standing tableside as his throat was torn free.  Steve watched from the cellar door as the fat one fell into a heap of black wool and blood, as other vampire scrambled to pull itself free of the chains, using the strange metal arm on his left side.  The creature rolled off the table and peeked up over the top, steel-blue eyes wide and wild. Brown hair was stuck to his face by sweat and blood, and his upper body was criss-crossed with scar tissue that all led to the metal appendage.

In spite of what Steve had just witnessed, in spite of the true fear he saw on the other’s face, his mission was clear: destroy every vampire that had anything to do with the destruction of his pack, and that included this one.  Hunching his upper body, Steve snarled, filling out the door frame before he stalked into the room. The room itself made him want to vomit even if it hadn’t reeked of the rank scent of vampire. Cages lined one wall, and he could make out the darkened shapes of wolves… sleeping, he hoped… not dead.   _Please not dead_.  The harsh living conditions led to an odor of waste and sweat on top of the vampire stink.

Stealing his resolve, Steve stalked towards the modified vampire, who stood by a table, breathing hard.   _Breathing?_  Something like recognition crossed over the vampire’s face, and he whined softly.  Steve felt something thrum in his head in response, but he shook it off physically.

“Steve?”  The creature inquired, now breathless, voice hoarse from all the screaming he’d done.  Steve paused, claws digging into the stone floor. A vampire trick, it had to be. Vampires were not telepathic to lycan; they were incapable of digging into the wild mind of a wolf and finding the information they needed.  Curving his back to make his already large body appear massive, his white fur stood in end as he stalked towards the terrified vampire.

“St-Steve… Steve wait, it’s me!  It’s... it’s Bucky!” The other insisted, frantic and nearing hysterics.  Rage unlike anything he’d ever felt before poured over Steve like hot lava, and the snarl that left him was something altogether feral.  Sweet… sweet revenge. Blood and pain, and this one would pay the most - the bastard vampire that thought they could pass for his mate! The goddamn nerve!  Omegas could not take human form; it was not possible! Foolish vampires; they’d never learn, and he would relish tearing strips off the bastard before him.

Terrified, the vampire staggered backwards and hit the ground hard, jarring his whole body.  Steve ignored the keening whimper of pain, even if the noise dug into his hindbrain and _clawed_.  Icy grey eyes looked up to Steve, imploring as he leered at the monster that would soon feel the sweet pain physically to that of which the Alpha chief had felt inside for three years!

“Please… _please_ , Steve, you have to scent me.  I’m yours… remember?” The vampire pleaded as he scrambled backwards on his hands and feet, away from Steve.  Disgust rolled through Steve. How could he ever love a monster like the one weeping before him? The vampire tipped his chin up, stretching his head back and showing throat.

Steve stopped in his tracks.  He’d cornered the vampire against a wall that was damp and slick for reasons he’d rather not think about.  The side of the vampire’s neck was covered in hideous scar tissue that extended up from the metal appendage.  It looked like a mix between a bite and a brand, and the sulphuric scent of magic wafted from it. As he looked closer, it appeared to be a branded sigil, shaped like a triangle with lines through it, pressed over a bond bite?

Every fiber in his being was screaming _destroy, rend, kill,_ but the shown throat was... it wasn’t something a vampire would do, even under threat.  Slowly, he padded forward, nostrils flaring as he sniffed. His own blood across his muzzle along with the thick scent of waste and vampire made it hard to pinpoint the one before him.  Inching closer, he finally caught the scent. Metal and oil mixed with the faint odor of vampire. Beneath it, however, was the scent of snowy evergreen.

_Bucky?_ He chanced, watching the vampire’s face.  The space between Bucky’s eyebrows pinched and his lips parted as he keened softly.  Both hands came up to squeeze at his temples.

“D-don’t… don’t, it hurts. Gods, it hurts,” Bucky whimpered as he dug his heels into the filthy floor and looked to Steve beseechingly.  His fingers dragged down the side of his neck to the angry, infected-looking sigil over the bite mark… _his_ bite mark, he realized, as the reality of the situation settled into his chest and made him feel ill.  Three years. Three years since his Omega had been taken from him, tortured and neglected in this hellhole at the hands of their enemies. Steve couldn’t even bring himself to think of what had happened to their pup.

The white fur of Steve’s body melted off his body, accompanied by a few clicks and pops as joints and bones reformed into his human form.  He crouched in front of the other, with his shoulders hunched protectively over his most-vulnerable parts, his chin tucked to his chest. The male claiming to be his Bucky let out a shaky breath and unfolded himself, head thumping back against the slick wall and exposing his throat again.  He sucked in a small breath as Steve’s hand curled against the right side of his neck, fingers stretching up to cradle the lobe of his pointed ear, and tipped Bucky’s head a little more. The vampire was pliant, spine bowing, head falling back a little.

Steve leaned forward and pressed his mouth over the sigil.  It stung his lips, and the sulphuric scent burned his nose hairs, but he persisted, inhaling deeply.  Sweat and fear laced through the vampiric odour, but wintery pine was what filled his senses.

Steve sucked in a rattling breath as he buried his face harder into the other’s throat. The scents of vampire and magic were on the surface, like kerosene on water, and the rich scent of Omega, distressed Omega at that, came forward tenfold as he licked over the infected brand. Between his body and the wall, Bucky whimpered, and his right hand curled around Steve’s shoulder, then upwards to meeky scratch into his beard. Steve could smell salt, and he realized they were both weeping while he tended to the destroyed bondmark.

“My Bucky… gods, I thought I’d lost you,” Steve whispered, unable to stop his own whimper even as his voice was all gravel from lack of use. He’d question the situation later. He’d wonder at the metal on his mate’s left side, and how he was in human form, and beg for forgiveness for not finding him sooner. For now, he needed to get his sweet Omega free from this place.

Gathering Bucky close, he rose to his feet with his mate cradled in his arms. Bucky’s remaining  limbs were trembling with weakness, and Steve could now see the worst of it. His mate was lighter than he’d ever been since childhood. It was difficult to transmute the human form he’d never seen before to the one he knew, but the wolf form had been bulky and strong. The male in his arms was lean, even gaunt in places, and now that the adrenaline had ebbed, Bucky was clearly having trouble holding his own head up.

Turning, Steve spied three wolves in the doorframe, who displayed a mixture of confusion and horror. Thor advanced slowly with Natasha right on his tail. Sam stuck by the door, glancing up the staircase at who he could only assume was Clint. Holding Bucky closer, he jerked his head towards the cages.

“Get them out. If they’re dead, build a pyre,” Steve ordered even as icy dread sunk claws into his chest. It would be fitting that a funeral pyre made of their dead would be the fuel that burned the vampiric estate to the ground. Sam scooted out of the way, allowing Steve to march up the stairs with his weak mate. As expected, Clint was at the top of the stairs with Brock at his side. Both of their ears were tucked back and Brock bared his teeth with his growl.

“That’s enough,” Steve snapped as he pushed the Alpha out of the way with his bare foot. Brock only moved minutely, just enough to give him room to stalk into the foyer.  There were several vampires face down on the ground with the full body weight of a wolf or two on their spines, and teeth bared. Their robes were torn, exposing injuries brought forth in the fight. Jack was practically frothing at the mouth, drooling onto the light brown hair of the vampire beneath him.  Steve adjusted Bucky in his grasp, bringing his head up against his shoulder and turning slightly so Bucky could see the subdued vampires.

“Which one is Alexander?”  He inquired softly into the matted grease of his mate’s hair.  To their credit, all the vampires remained still - not a single flinch to indicate who the man in question was.  Beneath his chin, Bucky’s head moved, taking in the vampires’ profiles beneath the wolves keeping them on the ground.

“The blond one at the end; the one Pepper has,” Bucky whispered.  Steve dropped a kiss on his forehead and squeezed him closer, protecting him as best he could.

“String him up outside.  The sungod can have him in the morning after he watches his coven burn,” Steve ordered.  The vampires below his wolves snarled in protest and tried to move, but they were further subdued or disabled by the animals above them.  Keeping Bucky cradled close, Steve turned, while his wolves dragged the immobilized vampires into a messy pile in the middle of the foyer.  Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Thor coming up the stairs with an extremely lean, black wolf draped in his arms. It was panting and clearly alive, but there was no time to waste.  He needed to get Bucky away from the awful place that had abused him for far too long.

Bucky hissed the moment the door opened and a rush of cold air greeted them.  Without his fur and weak from years of torture, Bucky’s skin flared to life with goosebumps and he shivered in Steve’s grasp.  Next to the door, a red cloak hung on a peg. It looked heavy enough to keep Bucky warm for the trip home. Juggling his limp mate, Steve yanked the cloak off the peg and bundled Bucky up before pushing his way out into the back garden, heading straight for the river.

~ =☆= ~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The smut: it's coming...


	3. Under the White Star Sun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gingerly, he set his crimson bundle down on the sleeping palette. Metal fingers moved to pull the hood of the cloak down and Bucky’s watery, icy-stone eyes peered up at Steve anxiously. The flesh across his nose was still pink, like new skin, but the blisters were gone. Steve could smell Bucky’s panic, and crouched down before him to gently cradle both sides of his head and rumble softly from his chest, attempting to soothe.
> 
> “What’s wrong with me?” Bucky whispered...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to the lovely [Cobalt Moony](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cobaltmoony/) for inspiration, and [Nurse Darry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NurseDarry/) for her amazing betaness!
> 
> Please note that the "zoophilia kinda sorta" tag is for this chapter. It will be marked so you can skip right down to the end note for a summary of the scene (it's right at the end of the chapter anyway!), but there is a plot point in the few paragraphs of it. :)

Sam had scouted far ahead as Steve carried his Bucky through the forest towards their den.  He’d taken a moment to wash his mate in the river despite the cold… but it allowed Bucky to watch as the house was engulfed in flames.  Though he didn’t say it, Steve was sure that his mate appreciated it, since he never looked away from the fire until Steve had carried him into the woods so far it couldn’t be seen anymore.

The moon had fallen behind the trees, and the dark heavens, still glimmering with stars, was beginning to brighten into shades of purple and pink.  Bucky had slept most of the way in Steve’s arms, lulled by the steady pace and rock of Steve’s gait. Warm, morning light began to eke through the wintery tree limbs, bringing a renewed sense of peace to the Alpha chief.

The bags under Bucky’s eyes were dark, bruised by lack of sleep and the abuses he’d suffered the last three years.  Though Steve couldn’t bring himself to ask, given what he’d witnessed in the mere minutes that he’d stood in the cellar doorway, he could only imagine the things his mate had gone through.  And he’d always had an active imagination.

Looking down at Bucky, Steve drew him closer still against his chest, grateful that the red cloak was lined with rabbit fur.  His mate no longer shivered, and with the coming dawn, the sun would help to warm him further until they reached their home. Sunlight cast across Bucky’s cheek and over his nose, and Steve had to resist the urge to track its path with his tongue.  The brisk, frigid bath in the river had mostly removed the scent of vampire, but it still lingered, seemingly permeating his mate’s hair and skin.

Bucky stirred with a whimper of pain, and a closer look from Steve told him why: the sunshine on his face had caused the skin to redden and begin to blister around the edges.  Horror stirred into Steve’s gut and he picked up his pace while trying to tug the hood over Bucky’s face to protect his skin, attempting to maintain a calm demeanour. If the pack knew… if they found out what he was beginning to suspect, they would tear his Omega apart.  Beneath the cloak, Bucky panted and drew his knees up to hide his feet as well under the cloak.

Despite being bipedal, Steve made it back to the cave swiftly and absconded with Bucky right into his hut.  There was hardly need to send anyone along to collect the other members of the pack that had been hiding elsewhere,  Sam had bypassed the cave entrance and had gone to fetch them. The wolves that had survived - some from the White Star, others from Crossbones, and a few that hadn’t shifted to identify themselves - were all being tended by his strike team.  No one would notice if he smuggled Bucky away from them all, nor would they blame him for it either… though the question of his Omega on two legs would definitely come up. He was not ready to answer those questions, and he wasn’t sure Bucky was either.

Gingerly, he set his crimson bundle down on the sleeping palette.  Metal fingers moved to pull the hood of the cloak down and Bucky’s watery, icy-stone eyes peered up at Steve anxiously.  The flesh across his nose was still pink, like new skin, but the blisters were gone. Steve could smell Bucky’s panic, and crouched down before him to gently cradle both sides of his head and rumble softly from his chest, attempting to soothe.

“What’s wrong with me?”  Bucky whispered, hoarse and nervous, but Steve could tell by the way he said it that the question was rhetorical; one of bewilderment and fear, not lack of knowledge.  Steve shook his head and moved carefully to sit beside Bucky on their fur-covered bed. His mate’s skin was somewhat chilly to the touch, and Steve moved a few of the furs to gently cover him.

“You know what it is, Buck, but it’s okay.  We’ll figure it out,” Steve assured him, rubbing his thumb back and forth across Bucky’s cheek.  He should have realized it sooner, really. Bucky’s flesh was paler than he remembered, his ears were soft points… and the scent of vampire clung to him even after their chilly bath.  Lightly, Steve touched Bucky’s top lip at the corner and pulled it back while applying pressure to his top gum. The canine under his thumb emerged further, and the horror settled deeper in Steve’s belly.

“Oh, Buck,” he said softly.  Steve’s expression became gentle, pained, and Bucky bristled in response.

“Don’t.  Don’t you  _ dare _ pity me,” he hissed viciously, as he jerked away from Steve.  He hunched his shoulders up protectively against his throat and curled away from Steve, as he dragged the cloak tighter around his body.  Steve’s heart twinged, and even though Bucky had pulled away, he tentatively -  _ stubbornly _ \- bridged the gap between them to grip Bucky’s hip and haul him closer.

“Not pity,” Steve rumbled, his growl low, commanding.  Bucky’s spine straightened, his hindbrain responding even though he had to clearly think very hard in order to keep his shoulders hunched up to his ears.  “Agony. Misery that I couldn’t keep you safe,” Steve murmured, as he pressed a kiss to Bucky’s hunched shoulder. The kiss pressed just a little harder, trying to coax those shoulders down, though he held little hope.  To his surprise, Bucky took a few deep breaths and allowed himself to unwind just a little.

“It wasn’t your fault, Steve,” Bucky responded quietly.  The metal plates on Bucky’s left side shifted and clacked together, as much a physical representation of anxiety as hunched shoulders and a tucked tail.  Slowly, Bucky unfurled more and Steve was able to draw him in all the way, cradling him right against his side while rubbing his back over the cloak. Steve closed his eyes, and despite being an Alpha, tipped his chin a little, inviting Bucky in against his throat.  Bucky’s breath stuttered, and his chapped lips pressed against the curve of Steve’s throat.

“You must be hungry,” Steve observed.  His hand swept up Bucky’s back slowly, pushing under his damp hair and squeezing the nape of his neck.  Bucky shuddered from head to toe this time, and drew his knees up towards his chest, like he needed to protect himself against what he was feeling.  Steve squeezed again and pressed against the base of Bucky’s skull.

“It’s okay, sweetheart.  It’s okay,” Steve urged. He felt Bucky’s lips part against his neck, tentative at first, before his lips curled back and his teeth pressed flat against the side of Steve’s throat.  Steve tried to keep himself in check, but as Bucky fumbled to find the vein, he held his breath, and tightened his grip on his sweet Omega.

After a minute of unsure scraping and prodding, Bucky found his mark.  Steve tensed as the flesh under Bucky’s fangs pinched and then released.  The warmth of blood rushing to the surface dragged a noise from Steve’s throat that he tried so hard to bite back.  But it was no use. He moaned and craned his neck, allowing Bucky to nuzzle into his throat as he fed. An Omega biting an Alpha… it was illicit; taboo.   _ Obscene _ .  And it went right to Steve’s cock.

Steve’s hindbrain went into overdrive, pleasured by the bite and that he was nourishing his mate with his own body. A low growl settled in his chest, rumbling like he was a purring feline. Steve’s hands explored, curious at the human version of his mate’s body. Bucky was lean… but Steve had every intention of packing weight back onto him swiftly.  Despite the faint features, Bucky had wide hips and strong shoulders. Maybe another Alpha would want a dainty Omega, but not Steve; he’d never wanted the lithe wolf forms that were often attributed to breeding bodies. Steve’s hands pushed under the cloak and found that the soft rabbit lining had nothing on the soft flesh of Bucky’s back. There were plenty of bumps and uneven skin where Bucky’s back had been flayed and left to heal without medical intervention, but even that scar tissue had its own kind of softness.

Steve’s eyes fluttered shut and he gently squeezed Bucky’s back, cooing at him to ease him from his throat. Bucky relented with a whine, and leaned back to peer up at Steve, tongue swiping away the blood on his lips. Already, Bucky’s cheeks were becoming rosy, and as Steve pushed the cloak from Bucky’s shoulders, he could see that other parts of his Omega’s body were rosy, too.

“Oh, Buck,” Steve murmured as his hand drifted down Bucky’s front to tease the tip of his cock with his fingertips. Bucky’s hips rocked in the pool of red and white, pupils blown wide. Steve’s thumb brushed over Bucky’s bottom lip, and the Omega purred as he lightly nipped it.

“Can you shift for me, sweetheart? Want to show you how much I’ve missed you,” Steve purred. Bucky’s expression faltered, and he glanced away with a shake of his head. 

“Not sure I can… it’s been so long,” he whispered, while also dragging the weighty, metal arm across his lap. Yes. Yes of course. Gods, Steve was a fool. He’d forgotten completely. Steve leaned in to nuzzle at his cheek, nipping the flesh once. 

“Shh, just present, Bucky. Let me see you be good for me, Omega,” Steve crooned sweetly, nipping again in appreciation as Bucky’s shoulders loosened.  Bucky’s whole body seemed to shiver under Steve’s hands, and he whined softly, a familiar noise that drew Steve in to mouth lightly along his jaw, licking his tongue across the coarse whiskers.  Bucky moved slowly at first, the position not the least bit new, but new in this form. Steve watched hungrily as Bucky crawled higher onto the furs onto hands and knees until he was arched beautifully across them.

“Damn,” Steve sighed happily.  It wasn’t the gorgeous wolf form of his Omega, but this body of his mate was just as lovely.  He pushed up behind Bucky and bit his flank beside where his tail might have been curled upwards to expose himself.  Steve couldn’t resist touching. His fingers dug into Bucky’s cheeks and squeezed the soft, rounded flesh while pulling them apart. His sweet Omega was coated in slick; rivulets steadily slipping from his hole and flowing where gravity dragged them. Steve couldn’t help himself. Pleased, he rumbled and leaned forward to follow the path from the base of his Bucky’s cock to the seeping whorl. 

Before him, Bucky moaned beautifully, even as he burrowed his face into the furs. The noise was foreign but sent wildfire racing to Steve’s groin. Determined, Steve swept his tongue in hard little circles around the tight furl, coaxing the muscle to relax so he could press in. Tasting Bucky’s nectar was one thing. Tasting it directly from the glands within him was ambrosia. Steve growled possessively and thrust in with his tongue, urgently licking. His grip tightened on his mate’s ass, preventing him from rocking back against the invading muscle. Bucky mewled in frustration but allowed his body to follow the thrust of Steve’s devious tongue.

Steve’s nose was flooded with the scent of snowy pine trees and sweat, and he knew Bucky was already wound up tight because he could smell tears in the air too.  All it took was Steve gripping his Omega’s cock and squeezing firmly. Bucky’s entire body went rigid, muscles curled up tight. His howl was deep in his throat and muffled by the furs he’d buried himself into.  A fresh rush of slick coated Steve’s tongue, pushing him on.

With Bucky’s hole still fluttering, Steve rose to his knees behind his mate and pushed in, breaching beyond the tightness of climax, and sinking in deep.  Bucky’s cheeks were red from Steve’s facial hair, the flesh angry, and Steve couldn’t help but rub his thumbs over it, further aggravating the skin.

Before him, Bucky’s spine bent and his hips arched up higher.  Once he was hilted, Steve had to hold himself still. Three years ago, he’d thought that he’d never be with anyone again.  That he had a second chance with his Bucky was emotionally overwhelming. Gathering Bucky up, Steve dragged him to his knees and held him against his chest, fingers curled lightly against his throat.  He pressed his thumb under Bucky’s jaw to tip his head to the side, and his beautiful Omega immediately complied with a whine.

“Please… please, Steve,” Bucky panted out, straining his neck even further.  Steve’s mouth brushed over the sulphuric rune and murderous rage simmered below the surface.  His hips rolled forward, hard, as he dug his teeth into his mate’s scruff. The skin didn’t break, not yet, but Bucky keened.  Steve fell forward again, catching their weight on his right hand. His hips rolled, thrusting deep and steady into his mate. Bucky’s whole body shook and trembled, maybe overstimulated, but Steve needed to show him who he belonged to; to remind him that he was a mated Omega, and nothing,  _ nothing _ , would take him away again.

Steve’s thrusts were relentless, driving his mate’s pleasure even as his own mounted.  He knew he could wring Bucky out until he wept, even go so far as to drive him speechless and pliant.  But that wasn’t what he was after right now. Steve needed to get the awful rune off of his mate’s throat, and make sure that everyone knew not to touch him, regardless of what form he was in.

Bucky’s next cry was throaty and wrecked, and Steve’s hips stuttered at the hard clench around his cock.  His fingers at Bucky’s throat squeezed just slightly, holding his head where Steve needed it to be to keep his teeth deep in the scar tissue that tracked up from Bucky’s metal appendage.  His spine bowed beautifully, and Steve growled appreciatively into the curve of his throat. 

“Steve… Steve please… need you, the  _ real _ you,” he whined, squirming and wriggling with his desperation, or overstimulation, Steve wasn’t sure.  But he growled roughly and slid his hips back enough to slip free of his mate’s hole. Bucky whimpered and despite his request, pushed his hips back against Steve to rub the wetness against his groin, trying to encourage him back in.

“Be good, Omega,” Steve murmured as he helped to ease Bucky back onto his hands and knees.  There was no strength in his poor Omega though, so he ended up crumbling down onto his elbows and chest instead.  His hips remained tipped upwards, hole visibly trembling and so, so wet.

Steve had to take a few deep breaths to calm his mind again to shift.  Where his nose had been cut by the whip stung like hell, but he was far more interested in the way Bucky’s whole body seemed to glow crimson with anticipation.  Soft fur brushed against the back of Bucky’s legs, and Steve watched with interest as goosebumps skated across his Omega’s back.

**[Warning: zoophilia ahead. Summary of this scene is in the end notes of this chapter.]**

Steve’s rough tongue traced up the Omega’s spine until he could nose his way up to the destroyed bondmark and hideous scar tissue.  His heavy, wolfen body dragged up Bucky’s back; fur tugging and pulling along the sweaty flesh. His aching cock was already full and throbbing from its sheath, and he had to shift his hips around to get the right angle.

As soon as he sank into Bucky, he growled low and vicious, and began to rut into his mate.

The slick walls of his mate’s channel gripped him tight, and the swelling knot at the top of his sheathe took some effort to push beyond Bucky’s rim. But as it did, the Omega within the cage of his strong legs rocked and wailed.  Steve’s hind claws dug into the furs to keep him anchored, allowing his hips to rock quick and shallow, popping the knot in and out of his mate’s hole. Steve snarled again possessively the moment Bucky let his head fall to the side, long chestnut hair flicking over one shoulder.  Another growl erupted from Steve as he dug his teeth into the scar tissue, digging so hard that the coppery flavour of blood filled his mouth, and the sulphuric scent washed against the back of his throat. It felt like the rune was fighting him, trying to deter him from taking what was his.  Bucky’s body thrashed like he was trying to buck Steve off him, and he mewled in pain.

Agony gripped Steve’s heart, but he instinctively knew he had to hang on.  Steve leaned further forward, using his weight to keep his mate contained. His teeth dug in harder until he felt a canine strike bone.  Bucky crumpled below him, keening desperately with a mixture of misery and pleasure. And relief. The sulphuric flavour began to dissipate as Steve licked over the rune trapped in his maw, like he might bathe it away with his tongue.  Bucky’s body shuddered as he squeezed tightly around Steve’s knot, keeping it locked inside. And Steve fell to pieces, pressing his pelvis hard right against the soft cushion of Bucky’s flank.

_ Steve… Steve, oh gods, Steve… thank you… thank you, _ the words rushed through Steve’s head in a babbled stream, and he knew it wasn’t from Bucky’s mouth to his ears.  Bucky was biting down on his flesh knuckles to muffle his desperate noises. A rush of bittersweet joy crashed into Steve’s mind, though he didn’t release his bite, or try to withdraw.  He wasn’t sure he could if he tried.

_ My sweet Omega… _ he replied.  Bucky froze for a moment beneath him, waiting for the pain to come, before sobbing with relief.  Releasing his bloodied knuckles, Bucky reached back to stroke along Steve’s muzzle. He was so gentle as he rubbed his thumb under Steve’s gums to feel the places where Steve had broken his skin and the binding rune all at once.  Finally, Steve released the bite and licked Bucky’s fingers. Snuffling forward, he licked Bucky’s cheek, tasting tears and whimpering softly in apology.

“M’okay… promise,” Bucky whispered.  “I am so very okay,” he added, turning his head to press a kiss against the side of Steve’s snout.

~ =☆= ~

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Scene summary: Steve bit into the vampire rune on their old bondmark, breaking the spell and reopening their bond. The pain Bucky experienced when Steve tried to speak with him telepathically in the vampire compound no longer occurs, and they are once more bonded mates. Yay!
> 
> Come say hi on [Tumblr](https://miss-aphi.tumblr.com)! I don't bite. Much.


	4. Promises Whispered Against Skin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What if I’m stuck like this?” Bucky finally rasped on a sharp intake of breath. Fear and panic curled into his chest, and he dug his fingers harder into Steve’s fur as he had before. Steve rumbled from his chest and lifted his head to tuck his wet nose against the bondmark on Bucky’s throat.
> 
> _Then you’re stuck like this. Nothing will change between us, and the pack will adapt,_ Steve replied. Stubbornness through and through, but Bucky should not have expected any less. Even if the pack dug in their claws and protested the mating of their chief with a broken Omega like Bucky, Steve would stick his nose up and continue on all the same. Obviously, he’d been doing the same. Bucky had been gone for years, through multiple breeding seasons, and Steve had not taken a new mate to continue his bloodline, despite the expectation of assisting to boost the pack’s numbers. Maybe, somewhere in that Alpha hindbrain of his, Steve had known that Bucky was still alive and out there, suffering.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Nurse Darry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NurseDarry/), I could not have made this awesomeness without your continued editing skeelz. Seriously, thank you so much. As for the rest of you reprobates...
> 
> More smut for youuuuuu~.
> 
> And! A super secret, special edition art piece done by yours truly can be found in the end notes.
> 
> AND!  
> AND!  
> AND!
> 
> Not one. BUT TWO pieces of art by the fabulously talented [Cobalt Moony](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cobaltmoony/), including a very naughty, **very NSFW** picture of our favourite boys _doing the do_.
> 
> Enjoy!

The snow was cold against his feet, but grounding in its own way.  The log under his hindquarters was hard and uncomfortable, but he wasn’t covered in fur these days, and the red cloak only kept him warm.  He’d had to remove the left sleeve, as it kept getting snagged in the metal plates of the monstrosity that was passing for a left arm. The uncovered metal did little to keep him warm.  The fire he’d built a few inches from his bare feet helped, since he wasn’t quite ready to go back into the cave.

There was at least one positive in his newfound freedom.  For the first time in three years, his mind was blissfully silent.  There was no overwhelming desperation for blood that he was denied to the point where his teeth were on edge and he was one beating away from death.  Bucky shifted his weight on the hard log as he poked a stick into the fire before him.

Behind him, the din of the pack settling in for the early morning only brought him comfort… even though they’d all stared at him like he had six heads.  There were a lot of new scents, and some familiar ones… and some that were decidedly absent. He couldn’t bring himself to ask who had been lost in the raid.  All he knew was that he and Loki had survived… somehow. His time spent in the cellar was a blurred mess of hallucinogens and starvation. Perhaps Loki had been spared from the experiments and extreme deprivation.

On his lap and wrapped up in the red cloak were three pups. Maria and Sam’s, cuddle-puddled together to keep warm in the heavy wool and rabbit fur, in front of his little fire.  They were just over three weeks old, and their eyes were just starting to open. The patterns on their fur, the mix of Sam’s nightsky and Maria’s chestnut just starting to come in as their fur filled out.  One of them had taken to suckling on his metal thumb. He couldn’t feel it, but it made him wonder. The hideous, metal thing attached to his body didn’t startle the pups. Sure, they couldn’t exactly _see_ it, but it didn’t disturb them, even while they drooled all over it.

If he were honest with himself, he couldn’t recall how the pups ending up in his lap.  Sam had just appeared at his side and dumped the pups in his lap, begging off for just three seconds with Maria without the whining.  And who was Bucky to send them back after such a requested? He’d waited four years for Steve… he could manage a few minutes.

Bucky shifted his weight again, and a trill of pleasant aches shot up his spine and down his legs.  He knew pain. Intimately. But this was the delicious sort of ache that went right down the bone and reminded him that there were things still worth living for.  Closing his eyes, Bucky allowed himself to drift as his flesh fingers settled on the new, raw bondmark that covered the cobweb of scars that made up his left shoulder.

Steve had been so damned good to him - he’d known exactly what Bucky had needed, and had made sure to not only shut off his brain, but take away the rune that had stop-gapped their mental connection.  It had been lonely in his head without the constant weight of his Alpha brushing up against his thoughts. Bucky could feel Steve’s thoughts even in that moment.

It had been a rough few years from what Bucky had gleaned, but now that there was some closure to the past, Steve was invigorated.  While Bucky had slept the daylight hours away, his Alpha had spent time with each of the little families in their pack - checking in, making sure injuries were tended to properly, and enough supplies were in place for the small influx of rescued wolves.  Hunters had raced out of the cave at one point, led by a tawny wolf named Jack, to fetch more supplies when the limited rations they had in the caves would not suffice… or perhaps Steve was being overly cautious.

Once the moon had begun to rise, Bucky had slipped out of the caves through an older escape tunnel that he and Steve had once played in as young pups.  It was easier avoiding the pack. What little interaction he’d had with them in the vampire compound, and in their caves, had been strained. They looked at Bucky suspiciously, nostrils flared and mouths slightly open to scent for vampire.  As far as Bucky could tell, he no longer smelled like one. The vampiric rune was gone, and the stench scrubbed out of his skin.

_You are thinking too hard,_ Steve rumbled into his head, though he sounded far away; busy as a bee as he ensured the pack was settled and safe.  Bucky smiled a little to himself as he thoughtfully poked into his tiny fire.

_Lots to think about,_ he offered, as another pleased thrum slipped up his spine from the ache between his legs.  Bucky’s eyes drew shut, and he allowed his body to settle into the dull throb. Comfortable and familiar, his mind drifted again.  Steve hummed in his head, an absent sort of tune that had no rhythm and was merely a series of up and down notes.

Bucky’s ears flicked backwards as he tracked the approaching crunch of snow under Steve’s paws.  His back paws curled into the snow, and a pleasant rumble left his chest as his Alpha’s head settled heavy on Bucky’s scruff.  Turning his head to the side, Bucky nosed at Steve’s muzzle, and ended up twitching as Steve’s cold nose bumped his cheek.

Bucky’s eyes flashed open and he sucked a breath in, startled.  The cold from Steve’s nose sank deep into his bones, and the brush of Steve’s fur against his fu-- no, his _skin_ made Bucky’s hair stand on end.  Steve was talking in his head but Bucky couldn’t hear it.  A dull roar had taken up residence in his ears, buzzing like angry bees.  His lungs felt like they were burning, and he realized it was because he wasn’t breathing.  The wood log under Bucky’s metal monstrosity splintered and cracked with the grip of his fist.  From Bucky’s lap, the pups began to whimper softly as they caught the scent of distressed Omega.

_Breathe, Bucky!_  Steve snapped in Bucky’s head with the full force of his Alpha voice.  Bucky’s hindbrain kicked into gear first and allowed him to suck in air, one breath right after the other.  Blue eyes swam into Bucky’s eyeline against the backdrop of white snow. No, white _fur_.  The sharp lines of red across Steve’s muzzle, still healing from the silver-laced whip he’d endured at the compound, stood out starkly, and allowed Bucky to bring the world back into focus.  Steve’s musk of sage and fresh-hewn maple further grounded Bucky and anchored him to the moment.

“Steve,” he rasped aloud rather than in his head.  Bucky’s flesh hand shook as he reached for Steve. He gripped a handful of fur and drew Steve in, in order to press his forehead against the hard brow of his mate.

_Shhh… I’m here,_ Steve soothed as a few tears slipped free of Bucky’s eyes, only to freeze on his cheeks.  Metal fingers tentatively curled into the fur as well, ever mindful not to snag and tug at the fur with the articulating plates.  Bucky squeezed his eyes shut and held on like the world might slip away from him again if he let go. Steve pressed back against his forehead and rubbed the coarser fur of his snout against Bucky’s face.

"Sorry,” Bucky whispered raggedly.  Steve rumbled at him and lifted his head to lick his Bucky’s cheek.  Huffing in response, Bucky pressed his mouth against the spot between Steve’s eyes and allowed his nostrils to flare in order to breathe his Alpha in.  His mate’s patience was a gift from the gods. Bucky had no idea how long it took him to settle - to sink back into this strange body; feel his opposable fingers, the metal contraption that made his shoulder ache, and the heavy warmth of the triplets in his lap.  Steve remained still throughout, as though he didn’t want to spook Bucky while he tried to get his head screwed on straight.

_You don’t need to apologize, my Omega,_ Steve murmured once Bucky’s heart stopped racing.  Pressure was building behind Bucky’s eyes - a product of stress, or the sun that was threatening the horizon… perhaps even both.  They shuffled around a little so that Steve was in front of the log and his large body was pressed firmly against Bucky’s legs. He lowered his head into Bucky’s lap and gave one of the pups that whined at the movement a consolatory nuzzle.

“I feel… I feel like I’m not in my own skin.  Everything hurts and itches, and I’m so damn cold all the time,” Bucky whispered, unable to keep the floodgates from spilling now that Steve presented a warm weight against his body.  Bucky had always felt safe and secure with Steve, and now that sensation was even more prevalent. In this body, he felt weak and vulnerable to everything.

“I don’t remember when they made me like this,” he added.  He recalled pain. Lots of pain. But his entire time imprisoned had been little else.  Bucky could maybe narrow it down if he tried. It had felt like a week where he’d not slept a wink, and was given extra rations.  He threw most of them up, but he remembered his joints and limbs pulling, stretching, like he was bound at all four ankles and being pulled outward, even though he was curled up as small as possible in his kennel.

_When did you realize it?_  Steve asked, soft and careful, like the question might open a can of worms neither of them wanted to face.  Frankly, Bucky didn’t want to think about it. Chewing his bottom lip, he peered down at the triplets. His hand shook as he rubbed the back of one of their heads, right behind the ear where it felt best.

“During your great rescue.  Or… just before that, actually.  He put this _thing_ on me, and I reached up to claw his face, but it was… _this_ instead,” Bucky explained.  The metal plates shifted and clicked together softly as Bucky moved the left arm, despite how it ached at the shoulder joint.  “I didn’t think it was possible for Omegas to take human form, but they found a way,” Bucky whispered, like it was a secret.

He’d seen how the pack looked at him when he’d walked out of the caves to get some fresh air.  The red cloak that kept him warm was an oddity in and of itself. The pack cared little about the nudity of those who could take a human form.  But an Omega in human form? It was a never-before-seen anomaly that made most uncomfortable at best. Couple it with the acrid smell of vampire, and the sulphuric smell of magic, and Bucky knew he was considered a threat.

Steve remained quiet, head resting heavy in Bucky’s lap, like a weight meant to keep him from floating off into his own head again.  Bucky’s flesh hand shook as he scratched anxiously behind Steve’s ear. Steve’s fur was so soft, especially up along the stiff cartilage of his ear.  Bucky had had no idea. He’d only ever felt the softness through the hardened pads of his paws, or the wet tip of his nose. It wasn’t the same as what the flesh fingers and palm felt.  It wasn’t as soft as the rabbit fur that lined the inside of the bright red cloak he draped himself in - there was a coarseness to it, indicative to the wild nature of the wolves as opposed to the tentative, delicious existence of rabbits.

“What if I’m stuck like this?”  Bucky finally rasped on a sharp intake of breath.  Fear and panic curled into his chest, and he dug his fingers harder into Steve’s fur as he had before.  Steve rumbled from his chest and lifted his head to tuck his wet nose against the bondmark on Bucky’s throat.

_Then you’re stuck like this.  Nothing will change between us, and the pack will adapt,_ Steve replied.  Stubbornness through and through, but Bucky should not have expected any less.  Even if the pack dug in their claws and protested the mating of their chief with a broken Omega like Bucky, Steve would stick his nose up and continue on all the same.  Obviously, he’d been doing the same. Bucky had been gone for years, through multiple breeding seasons, and Steve had not taken a new mate to continue his bloodline, despite the expectation of assisting to boost the pack’s numbers.  Maybe, somewhere in that Alpha hindbrain of his, Steve had known that Bucky was still alive and out there, suffering.

“What if I--” Steve cut Bucky off with a low growl that was pure Alpha; commanding and demanding silence.  Bucky’s lips curled over his teeth and he bit down on them to keep silent as his Alpha wished.

_Whatever it is, Bucky… we’ll figure it out.  No ‘what ifs’ will send me running in the other direction.  You are my Omega, as you have always been. My only regret is that I didn’t save you sooner,_ Steve stated in a voice that was both a warm embrace and fierce wolf.  The soft fur of Steve’s muzzle rubbed over Bucky’s face before Steve licked his cheek.

_Come inside so I can show you the beauty I’ve alway seen in you, Omega, regardless of flesh or fur._ Steve bit down on Bucky’s metal hand lightly to tug him off the log.  Bucky felt his face grow warm, an odd sensation, but he found himself nodding in agreement.  Bucky kicked snow over his firepit until the flames turned to steam, and carefully gathered the pups in his lap up in his cloak.  They squeaked and whimpered with displeasure, but settled once he had them cradled against his chest, bundled up nice and cozy.

Bucky followed Steve back into the caves to Sam and Maria’s alcove.  Sam poked his snout out of the leather flap upon sensing their approach, and his ears immediately perked up.  Crouching down, Bucky gently set the pups on their paws, and coaxed them with a little pat on their hinds into their home through the gap Sam made with his neck.  Sam nuzzled each one as they toddled around his paws, before settling his eyes on Bucky. Swallowing hard against thorny lump in his throat, Bucky could sense the slow drag of that strange disembodied feeling that started at the back of his neck and spread outward.  He knew what Sam was seeing: a hideous Omega built of flesh and metal, cloaked in magic and human coverings. An abomination in the eyes of pack expectation and tradition. Omegas could not shift. It just wasn’t possible. Yet there Bucky was, wobbly on feet he wasn’t used to; an abomination mated to the pack’s chief.

_Thanks for watching them, Buck.  Maria needed the sleep,_ Sam said, cutting through Bucky’s rapid spiral and putting the brakes on it.  Bucky felt his cheeks warm once more and he nodded as Sam bumped his forehead to Bucky’s, then turned back inside.  Steve was there, pressed up against Bucky’s side as he wobbled on his haunches, unsteady and a little dizzy. Patient as before, Steve waited for Bucky to get his feet properly beneath him and then stayed right against Bucky’s leg as they made their way back to the interior plateau to their home.  The extra support was definitely needed. A couple of the wolves had poked their heads out to see what the ruckus was. Bucky did not miss the few suspicious glares that were sent in his direction as they passed.

Once alone, Steve’s fur sloughed from his flesh and he rose to his two-legged form.  Both hands immediately reached for Bucky’s face, and the Omega was drawn inwards with a little pull.  The soft kiss felt strange, but Bucky melted into it as Steve’s coarse tongue licked across them and gained access to the wet insides of his mouth.  A moan bubbled up from Bucky’s throat as Steve’s warm, rough hands glided down the sides of Bucky’s neck and under the cloak in order to push it off his shoulders.

A chill followed the soft stroke of rabbit fur as it puddled around Bucky’s feet.  Goosebumps flared across Bucky’s back and he pressed forward into Steve’s embrace for warmth.  Steve abided, of course, and wrapped strong arms around Bucky’s body, cradling him close as he explored Bucky’s mouth in slow flicks and swirls.  The wobbliness in Bucky’s knees was back for an entirely different reason. Breaking the kiss and bending at the waist, Steve swept Bucky off his feet and carried him to their nest.  He laid Bucky out in the furs and settled on his knees between Bucky’s thighs.

“Sweet Omega,” Steve sighed tenderly as his hands roamed up Bucky’s calves.  “Will you let me show you how much I crave you still?” the Alpha asked as he leaned over Bucky to brush a kiss on his sternum, then up to the hollow between his collarbones.  Bucky shuddered, jaw slack and his chin tipped back in offering, even though his cheeks and throat had become a lovely shade of pink.

“Yes, Alpha,” Bucky whispered as his eyelids drooped over blown-wide pupils.  Every inch of skin buzzed pleasantly under Steve’s hands. They glided over Bucky’s hips, his belly, and up to his chest where Steve thumbed at his nipples softly, illicting a gasp from his mate.  Steve chuckled softly and lightly pinched the tawny buds between thumbs and forefingers. Bucky’s spine bowed, bringing his chest up into Steve’s hands. Steve rumbled with encouragement above Bucky, as the nipples were plucked into hardened peaks that Steve bent over and began to lick softly.

Bucky mewled hoarsely as Steve’s teeth pressed into his nipple, but he wasn’t able to curl upward.  Steve was blanketed over him now and Bucky could feel Steve’s hard cock pressed against the inside of his thigh.  Steve’s hips were moving in a slow roll to give them just enough friction to take the edge off. And how desperately that was needed.  Steve’s mouth was the work of a demon as all those teeth, lips, and tongue trailed across Bucky’s cool flesh. Steve was tracing the lines of Bucky’s muscles with his tongue, biting along them here and there to mark this version of his Omega all over.  Steve sucked bruises into his joints, along scars, and bit fresh marks into the flesh over his scent glands.

By the time Steve had worshipped every single inch of Bucky’s body, right down to each toe tip, Bucky was a trembling, shaky mess.  He was sure he’d come just from the attention to his body, but with how hard his cock was, and how frustrated he still felt, Bucky wasn’t so sure.  Metal fingers were gripping the fur beside his head, and the others threaded into Steve’s hair, hanging on, probably too hard, but he couldn’t feel anything beyond where Steve was touching him.

“Open your eyes,” Steve whispered, lips right against Bucky’s.  Were his eyes closed? He had no idea, but as Bucky blinked his eyes open, the dim light from the kerosene lamp in the corner lit up Steve’s face above him.  Steve’s gaze penetrated Bucky to his very soul. From all the touches, and now the deep blue gaze, Bucky felt as though he were on display, flayed open and vulnerable.  Though, it was more than that. Vulnerable and exposed, yes, but with Steve’s large body over the top of him, Bucky felt protected where he was caged within the strong limbs of his Alpha.

“Steve,” Bucky rasped softly as he curled his fingers up into Steve’s hair and drew him down for a kiss.  It was soft and tender, just as all of Steve’s touches to his body had been since he’d been laid down in the furs.  Bucky’s legs shifted, restless for more, for everything Steve could give him. Steve, however, was a little shit. He’d always been a shit.

The thick shaft with its growing knot at the base was stroking slowly into the cradle of Bucky’s hip still, dragging against his hot skin, lubricated by his own prefluid.  Steve was smirking, small and crooked, head moving to press against the corner of Bucky’s mouth with his own. Bucky drew his legs up, lightly pinning Steve’s cock… or giving him a tighter space to rut into.  A thrill of excitement snaked through the Omega when Steve barked out a groan at the sudden pressure, and he moved his hips more thoroughly. Steve’s teeth grazed a path along the line of Bucky’s jaw as he carefully drew all the way back to free his cock.

With strong, greedy hands, Steve pushed Bucky onto his side, situating his limbs however he desired.  Bucky let him, only moving his flesh arm to pillow his own head as Steve curled around his back. As soon as their bodies were pressed together, Steve’s hips began to move, rubbing his cock firmly against the slick cleft of Bucky’s ass.  Steve’s arms curled around him as well. Fingers spanned wide across Bucky’s thigh, then under it as he drew up Bucky’s leg, opening him, preparing him for what would come.

“There… _there_ ,” Bucky urged as Steve’s hips pushed forward to press the tip of his cock against the Omega’s hole.  Every muscle in Bucky’s body coiled, as he attempted to shift over onto his hands and knees, but the arm not holding up his leg was curled over his shoulder and around his torso, keeping him pressed right against his body.  Steve’s fingertips tracked up from Bucky’s nipple to his throat, tracing the collarbone and the scar tissue, then back to the pert nipple.

Steve’s cock breached his hole with a firm thrust of his hips.  The angle of Steve’s cock within him, and the possessive way that Steve held him, made Bucky a slave to the sensation.  He was already overcharged from Steve’s thorough attentions; his skin humming. Bucky’s hips pushed backward, encouraging Steve to find a pace, to ruin him, but Steve didn’t.  It was clear his cheeky Alpha had no inclination of the sort.

“My sweet Omega,” Steve rumbled as he mouthed along the bondmark that joined their hearts; their very souls.  The one that had been tainted by vampires but repaired by a stubborn fool of an Alpha. Steve didn’t move faster, or harder.  His motion rolled slowly, deeply, hitting all the vulnerable glands and tender nerve endings within Bucky’s body. Steve’s arm shifted to hook Bucky’s knee over his elbow, freeing up his hand.  A sharp moan was punched out of Bucky when Steve gripped his cock. Barely half a stroke, and Bucky whined loudly as he spilled over Steve’s hand and clenched tight around the thickened shaft within him.  Gods, the pleasure. Bucky had no idea how long it carried on for - he only knew that he could scarcely breathe, nor could he move.

“Mmm…” Steve rumbled behind his ear where he was sucking a small love bite into the hidden flesh there, like a secret just for the two of them to share.  Even with Bucky shaking, muscles coiled and twitching of their own volition, it was clear that Steve was hardly through with him. Steve slotted a leg in between Bucky’s in order to pin the Omega to the bed.

And still, Steve’s movements didn’t quicken.  He didn’t roll Bucky forward to rut into him until he came; didn’t use his body for his own achievement.  Instead, he held Bucky’s cock firmly with his fist and maintained the slow, unrelenting pace. Bucky’s head rolled back onto the curve of Steve’s arm and Steve’s hand shifted to grasp his throat.  Using his thumb, Steve coaxed Bucky’s head to the side. Bucky’s jaw went slack as Steve’s mouth pressed to his, tongue immediately invading, coaxing out a moan.

“Do you believe me now, Bucky?”  Steve rumbled as he kissed his way back to their bondmark, mouthing at the mottled flesh over his scent glands.  Steve sucked, and Bucky squirmed, rocking himself on Steve’s cock as sensation began to sweep overwhelmingly over him once more.  His metal fingers slid back and up, and gripped a fistful of Steve’s hair.

“Do you believe me that you’re beautiful?  An absolute dream made real… and all _mine_ ,” Steve growled possessively as he finally, _finally_ , started to thrust with gusto.  Pushing forward, Steve trapped Bucky under his body and began to rut into his hole.  He kept Bucky spread out beneath him, his leg propped up on a pile of furs, and his face mashed into another.  Gritting his teeth, Bucky tried not to think about how warm his face was from embarrassment at the praise, even though it stroked his hindbrain and sent tingles of pleasure down his spine.

“Alpha,” Bucky whined hoarsely into the furs, ignoring Steve’s question for now.  Probably forever. Plastered against his back, Steve growled and bit against the curve of his neck, just below the bondmark, just low enough to make Bucky feel the twinge of teeth on unmarked flesh.

“Answer me, pet,” Steve commanded in that tone that made Bucky want to obey.  Shivering, Bucky dug his hands into the furs and arched his spine as much as he could with all of Steve’s weight flat against him.

“Mmngh, yes, Alpha… yes, believe you, anything you say,” Bucky babbled out, and Steve rewarded him with a few hard thrusts as he planted a hand in the middle of Bucky’s back, pressing down to make his request clear.  Bucky submitted, allowing his chest to flatten against the furs. Clearly satisfied, Steve slid his hand up into Bucky’s hair, tangling his fingers into the soft, brown tendrils, and moved Bucky’s head where he wanted it.  Bucky’s scarred neck was open, on display, and Steve rewarded him even further by fucking into him more quickly.

“So good, my Omega.  So good for me; so pretty,” Steve rumbled back as he drove his cock into his mate.  The hand not tangled in Bucky’s hair moved down to grip Bucky’s backside, holding him down and open for the girth of Steve’s growing knot to start teasing at the Omega’s rim.

The praise shoved Bucky headfirst into another climax.  He burrowed his face into the furs and moaned loud and long, trembling with pleasure.  Above him, Steve growled and allowed himself to let loose. Skin collided with skin as Steve fucked deep and hard, chasing his own pleasure as the knot began to balloon.  The swell tugged at the rim as it pushed in and out, and as Bucky peeked over his shoulder, he could see Steve watching the knot work.

Bucky whined lightly, shyly, hyper-aware of his body and how Steve must be staring at this human form taking his girth.  It felt filthy, maybe a little wrong, but as Steve’s thumb dipped into his slick cleft to nudge Bucky’s rim, holding it open so the knot could pop in and out more freely, Bucky couldn’t help but keen with pleasure.

“Have one more for me, sweet Omega?”  Steve inquired, voice barely more than a constant growl.  He released Bucky’s hair in favour of bracing his weight on the furs by Bucky’s head.  Steve leaned forward, biting firmly up Bucky’s shoulder blade to his throat once more where he bit down on their bondmark.  There was no response from Bucky other than a sharp cry as he came hard once more, giving Steve exactly what he’d asked for.  Bucky’s flesh pulled and snapped free under Steve’s teeth, muffling the snarling moan from the Alpha as he filled Bucky up, the knot tying them together.

Bucky was trembling as Steve released his neck and moved upwards. It took a considerable amount of strength, strength Bucky wasn’t sure he had, to pull his arms up and under the furs, supporting his torso.  Above him, Steve straddled his thighs, keeping them pressed together.

Bucky was floating, purring, _sated_.  He was aware of his body, of his fingers and toes, his skin, the slight points of his ears, the sharpness of his fangs.  Blinking slowly, he turned his head to the side and gazed down the length of his spine at his Alpha.

Heat flooded his face as he watched Steve gripping both of his cheeks and rolling them in little circles, so he could see the root of his cock, the swollen base of his knot stuck within the tight, trembling rim of Bucky’s hole.

“Steve,” Bucky whispered shyly as Steve rubbed his thumbs around it, pressing it against the backside of the knot.  Steve hissed pleasurably in response, a noise that was echoed by Bucky.

“Gods, you’re so sensitive like this,” Steve murmured his approval as he rubbed the rim until Bucky was whimpering lightly, hissing with oversensitivity.  “You’re amazing. Mm, so gorgeous. Love being able to touch like this and seeing every muscle move,” the Alpha continued as he leaned down to kiss between Bucky’s shoulder blades, and then nuzzling up into his hair.

“ _Steve_ ,” Bucky rasped softly as the movement pulled at his rim and shifted against the tender nerve endings within him.  A low chuckle rumbled behind Bucky’s ear.

“What’s the matter, Buck?”  Steve inquired, low, throaty, and the perfect example of that little-shit personality that had been present when Steve was a sickly pup, to now as the big bad Alpha chief.

“Just… you’re _looking_ at me,” Bucky whispered, squirming a bit and biting back the gasp when Steve’s cock shifted within him again.  Steve took it as an opportunity to press into Bucky again, making sure the knot stayed nice and snug within. Bucky felt Steve smile against the side of his neck where he dropped a few tender pecks over the raw bondmark.

“You’re beautiful; you’re _mine…_ how can I not look?”  Steve murmured, whispering promises, the sweet nothings against their mating mark.  Bucky bit his bottom lip thoughtfully. How could he argue with that logic? He was Steve’s, he had always been Steve’s, even when he’d been stuffed into a tiny cage and their bond had been fractured.

Nodding, Bucky relented to Steve’s insistence.  He tipped his head to the side for his mate, blinking softly up at his Alpha with wide eyes.  He could see the moment Steve melted. Steve hummed at him and leaned forward, pressing his cock deep inside, but it was only to kiss Bucky sweetly, awkward given the position, but just as lovely.

“My Omega,” Steve whispered between small kisses that Bucky returned.

“My Alpha,” he purred right back.

~ =☆= ~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *fans self* Whoa, nellie. Was that hot or what? Is it wrong to get hot and bothered by your own writing?
> 
> I'm on [Tumblr](https://miss-aphi.tumblr.com) (sometimes) but usually I'm writing other ~~(smut)~~ pieces. Still, I'll respond to asks and comments I'm tagged in!
> 
> Oh, what, you were waiting for the super secret art by me?
> 
> You asked for it!
> 
> That moment when you can't find a reference picture for your artist, so you have to put your elite drawing skills to work, I present to you:
> 
> **Aphi's poorly drawn smut, with stickfigures and stick-dicks™**  
>  _Medium: iPhone 7 finger painting._  
> 


	5. Bones of Dissent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “There’s trouble,” she declared. Bucky’s hackles rose. Though he didn’t know the female all that well, she wasn’t an alarmist by nature. She seemed to take things in stride, consider all options, and move on from there. Steve seemed to be of the same mind as he visible bristled.
> 
> “It’s Brock. He’s… making a scene,” Natasha offered with a barely perceptible wince. Conflict was written across her face. That she would mention it at all indicated it was not a small scene that the former Alpha chief was making. Natasha moved restlessly on her feet before dropping to all fours to shift back. A soft, warning yip accompanied her turning tail and running back to the cave. Steve let out a breath and took off after her, Bucky bringing up the rear in a flurry of dark hair and red fabric.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smutsmutsmutsmutsmutsmutsmut!
> 
> There is absolutely no smut in this chapter. Nope. None whatsoever.
> 
> Thanks as always to [Nurse Darry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NurseDarry/) for her excellence, and [Cobalt Moony](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cobaltmoony/) for the beautiful piece in this chapter.

Spring had come.  Two months after the fateful attack on the vampire compound, the snow was gone and the grass was green.  It had taken time - and plenty of assurance from Steve - for Bucky to come to terms with this human form that he was stuck in.  The metal arm ached less with the warmer temperatures, but his skin itched still, particularly around the full moons when the pack would run, and he… couldn’t.  Steve had tried to explain to him what it was like to shift - what headspace to be in, how it felt, how it started - but he just…  _ couldn’t _ .

For the most part, Bucky had come to terms with that.  There were nice things about being confined to this form.  Being able to feel Steve, his skin or his fur, against his whole body was very nice.  He liked being able to see and feel the bondmark at the side of his neck, even if the scars that snaked out from the metal contraption on his side was a constant reminder of his physical state.

When Bucky left the caves, it was rarely to go very far.  He stood just outside of the cave entrance now, his toes wiggling lightly into the cool grass.  The beloved scarlet robe hung from his shoulders, keeping him warm and comfortable in the chilly nighttime air.

_ My Omega, _ Steve rumbled softly at him as he padded out towards Bucky.  The fresh grass whispered under the Alpha’s paw pads. The tips of Bucky’s ears twitched, tracking the movement, and eventually his whole head turned to look over his shoulder.  On all fours, Steve was massive. Even as he sat on his haunches beside Bucky, the top of his head was nearly even with Bucky’s shoulder. Even after all this time, it was still a strange sight.  Steve had always been larger than him. Sure, as an Omega, Bucky was on the bigger and brawnier side than most, but Steve was an Alpha. Once his health had been addressed by the tribe’s shaman, Steve had shot up like a weed.  Bucky’s flesh fingers rose and scratched behind Steve’s ear.

“Alpha,” he greeted with tenderness.  His whole body leaned in towards Steve’s, and though Steve had to adjust his paws in the grass, he remained upright despite the extra weight from Bucky, though he did tip his head up to nip at Bucky’s cheek playfully reproachful.  Bucky chuckled fondly as he tugged Steve’s ear. With a rumble from his chest, Steve pressed bodily into Bucky’s side causing the bipedal male to stumble sideways, chuckling, because he knew exactly what Steve was thinking. Not that he’d mind at all.  It was spring. It was breeding season, and though Bucky had not gone into heat, something was in the air, like an electrified charge that had mates sticking close to the den, close to each other, waiting for the moment to strike.

As Bucky bent at the waist, he dug his fingers into Steve’s fur and rumbled right back.  He nuzzled his nose into Steve’s scarred muzzle while Steve pressed his nose into Bucky’s throat to nip at the bondmark.  Warmth spread from Bucky’s belly, out into all of his limbs. So focused was he on his Alpha, that he didn’t notice the arrival of a svelte, ruddy wolf until she clicked her teeth at them and shifted into her human form.  Steve rumbled something untoward to Bucky’s mind that had him smirking, before turning to greet Natasha with a small downward tip of his muzzle. Natasha tipped her head up in response, showing her throat for a brief moment.

“There’s trouble,” she declared.  Bucky’s hackles rose. Though he didn’t know the female all that well, she wasn’t an alarmist by nature.  She seemed to take things in stride, consider all options, and move on from there. Steve seemed to be of the same mind as he visible bristled.

“It’s Brock. He’s… making a scene,” Natasha offered with a barely perceptible wince.  Conflict was written across her face. That she would mention it at all indicated it was not a small scene that the former Alpha chief was making.  Natasha moved restlessly on her feet before dropping to all fours to shift back. A soft, warning yip accompanied her turning tail and running back to the cave.  Steve let out a breath and took off after her, Bucky bringing up the rear in a flurry of dark hair and red fabric.

As Natasha had described, the scene that Brock was making was not small by any means.  Within the communal area of the caves, he paced back and forth in front of the mother fire with several members of the defunct Crossbones tribe in wolf form behind him.  The rest of the pack was either watching from the openings of their tented alcoves, or from the plateau above Brock and his wolves.

Bucky couldn’t recall ever seeing the male’s human form, and part of him was grateful for that.  In his wolf form, he had been missing part of his right ear, and the salty-black fur on that side down to his tail was bristly, short, and growing in at different angles.  Now Bucky understood why. Hideous scarring covered the right side of Brock’s body from head to toe. The pink, mottled skin pulled taut as Brock paced, restless and wired.

“Ah, there he is,” Brock said with false cheer and a sinister growl rolling under every word.  Steve purposefully put his body in between Bucky and Brock, and it did not go unnoticed that he remained in wolf form.  He sat down on Bucky’s toes, which made Bucky suppress a grin. Always in contact.

“The broken Omega and the love-drunk Chief that can’t see beyond his own snout other than to his Bucky,” Brock taunted, his grin the very definition of evil as he spit out Bucky’s name like it was poison.  Any mirth Bucky felt from Steve’s constant physical contact died as the plates of his metal arm clicked together instinctively… though he wasn’t quite sure what the instinct was.

_ What do you want, Brock? _ Steve inquired through the bloodlink that bound him to all members of his pack.  Though Steve’s tone was calm, anybody who knew Steve knew it for what it was. Practiced patience, before he lost said patience.

“My rightful place as leader of this…  _ pathetic  _ excuse of a tribe.  You went unbonded for three godsforsaken years while you mourned your Omega.  And look what was returned to you. An Omega in human form, tainted by vampirism and bloodlust.  The bitch can’t even stand the taste of meat - we’ve  _ all  _ heard him retching,” Brock raved.  The wolves that had backed him rumbled with agreement and dragged their claws along the stone floor.  Bucky recognized them - Jack, Zemo, Klaue, Grant - and he couldn’t help but feel betrayed.

Steve had told him of how the vampires had burned and salted the earth that the Crossbones tribe had once lived on, and how he’d faced Brock in the ancient rite of two Alphas vying for leadership while combining tribes.  It was a traditional battle, one that Steve had been victorious in, and now Brock was spitting in the face of Steve’s generosity to allow him and his pack members to stay in their ancestral caves.

_ And? _  Steve inquired, still calm.  The little shit. The placid response did nothing but put Brock’s temper through the roof.  He  _ walked _ through the mother fire, carelessly kicking one of the logs out of the way.  Sam was the one that hissed and nosed it back into the pit, burning his snout in the process.  Brock stayed back only far enough to be out of reach of Steve’s claws and teeth, but his proximity still made the hairs on the back of Bucky’s neck stand on end.

“You’ve mated the enemy.  If you were a lesser Alpha, you would be exiled.  But since you are the Chief, I challenge you. You don’t deserve your rank,” Brock seethed.  Whispers and growls of disbelief reverberated around the cave. Steve was completely unmoved, and visibly unimpressed.  Rising to all fours, however, he dipped his head once.

_ We shall see, _ Steve replied, gesturing with a flick of his ears and his tail to Sam, who despite his burns, took Steve’s place in front of Bucky.  Brock’s grin was all teeth, and made Bucky’s skin crawl. Thankfully, the bastard Alpha dropped to all fours. His bones popped loud enough to be heard, bowing and bending, stretching out the hideous flesh as fur tore through the skin.

Brock didn’t give Steve even one second to prepare.  The moment he was full-wolf, Brock advanced, slobbering maw opened in an attempt to get Steve by the throat.  But Steve was ready for him. He skirted out of the way, and Sam used his body to back Bucky up several steps.  Bucky knew better than to interfere in an Alpha’s fight, but that did not stop Clint and Natasha from settling down on either side of him to keep him contained.  His arm was whirring audibly, metal slats tapping together. Anxiety or… or something he couldn’t describe. Bucky could feel it down to his toes, but couldn't explain the sensation if he’d tried.

Steve danced away again from Brock’s claws, all but mocking the older Alpha’s attempts to land a hit.  Frustrated, Brock ran full tilt at Steve, but was met with the hard cap of Steve’s skull square on the nose.  Blood-scent filled the air, and Bucky felt his fangs drop hard and fast from his gums, pushing away the tingling, clicking sensation inside of his body.  

Pressing his advantage, Steve dug his claws into the side of Brock’s neck and tore downward.  The scarred skin gave with some force, but one of Steve’s talons snagged on a seam of scar tissue.  Brock twisted his head to bite hard down on Steve’s left foreleg. The bone snapped under his powerful jaws, and Steve howled in agony.  Tearing his neck free and releasing Steve’s leg, Brock shoved his whole body weight into Steve, knocking him further off balance, then shoving both front paws into his ribs in an attempt to break more bones.  He swiped across Steve’s muzzle, breaking open the old scars. With a snarl, Steve rolled hard to the side, getting his body out from under Brock, and it put him in the perfect place to strike true.

Jerking his head up, Steve slammed his teeth onto the vulnerable underside of Brock’s throat.  Blood gushed over Steve’s white muzzle, and a watery gurgle escaped Brock. Almost immediately, the fight left the scarred Alpha, and Steve didn’t hesitate further.  Crunching down his jaws, he tore deep into Brock’s throat and ripped it free. Brock staggered half a step before falling to the side in a lifeless heap. Steve gagged and spit out the chunk of Brock left behind.  Shakily, the Alpha Chief rose to his feet, keeping his weight off the broken foreleg.

For a long moment, the only sounds in the cave were Steve’s labored breathing and the crackling of the mother fire.  Jack gave a keening wail to the ceiling, and it was joined by the others at his sides. It echoed noisily through the halls and made Bucky’s ears ring enough that he covered them both.

Awkwardly, Steve hop-walked towards Bucky, head low, ears tucked back, but victorious all the same.  Relief settled into Bucky’s chest as he tried to step around Sam. 

It happened so fast, yet time seemed to slow down.  One moment, Bucky was moving closer to his injured mate, and the next, four wolves were on Steve.  They tore into his fur, taking out tufts and reaching for skin. Horror and fear lanced through Bucky as he watched, wide-eyed.

Hot white pain followed, running along his bones and burning his joints.  Bucky might have screamed, he wasn’t sure, but Steve was going to die.

~ =☆= ~

Steve was going to die.  He could feel it. Every dig of claws or teeth into his skin tore more of his life-force free, bleeding him dry over the very floor that his mother had reared him on.  Cruel fate to have brought them back together only for Steve to be torn away this time. But he was tired. The world was getting dark around him, and Bucky’s howl sounded a half-dozen miles away.

_ Wait… howl? _

The pressure of four bodies on him was off him in a rush as his attackers backed away.  The darkness in his vision began to fade, and Steve… wasn’t entirely sure what he was seeing.  A glossy black wolf was standing over him, snarling bloody murder and clawing into the stone. The wolf’s left foreleg glinted metal; intricate plates clicking together and reeking of magical sulphur.

_ Bucky? _ Steve inquired, bewildered but for only a moment.  Seeming to ignore him, Bucky launched himself into the four larger wolves.  Bucky got a hold of Zemo’s ear and tore so hard that the flesh ripped all the way down to his jowls.  He spat it into the mother fire and then turned on Jack, pouncing on his back and digging his teeth viciously into the scruff, while his forepaws tore open Jack’s side.

Clint, Natasha and Sam joined the fray as Klaue latched onto Bucky’s back leg to pull him flat in an attempt to forcefully mount him.  Bucky twisted and turned through the bodies, avoiding the gnashing teeth of his allies but diving into the bodies of his enemies like they were the only ones in his vicinity.

It all came to a head when three wolves were dead and Bucky had Jack pinned to the ground, teeth dug deep in his neck.  Steve rolled up onto his paws slowly, trembling and weak, but was unable to take his eyes off of Bucky. The Omega’s throat was working as he drained Jack dry, swallowing gluttonous mouthfuls of blood until Jack’s whole body rattled, shuddered, and died.

Licking his chops, Bucky withdrew from his meal and turned to Steve.  Those beautiful, stormy eyes were wild and wide, but the moment they honed in on Steve with his bum leg and bloodied fur, his expression changed.  Steve knew the look well. He’d seen it plenty when he’d been on death’s door as a pup, furless from the stress of sickness. Bucky would snuggle up to him to keep him warm through the chilly nights with a worried pinch between those grey-blue eyes that would dutifully watch all night long to make sure Steve kept breathing.

_ I’m okay, _ Steve assured softly, in spite of the broken foreleg that he kept tucked up to his body and how he wobbled back and forth like he’d drunk himself silly on the sacramental wine they’d stole from the nearby village church.  Bucky huffed in that way he did when he became exasperated with Steve’s nonsense and moved up against Steve’s side, careful of the broken leg. Stubborn or not, Steve gratefully leaned into his mate, and allowed him to guide them up onto the plateau to their alcove.  It was poor form to leave their kills in the common area, but Steve didn’t care. He was hurt. Perhaps the bodies would serve as a warning to any of Brock’s remaining hangerson.

Once inside their alcove, Bucky shed his wolf form as naturally as shrugging off his cloak, like he was a practiced hand with the shift.  He dragged one of the heavier furs from the top of their nest and laid it out flat on the floor. Without being told, Steve hobbled onto the laid out fur and gingerly dropped himself to his belly.  His foreleg twinged and he bit back a sharp whine, biting onto his tongue until the dizziness faded. Bucky was there, grounding him through the wave of pain by squeezing at the bundle of nerves at the nape of his neck.

“You idiot,” Bucky whispered finally, once Steve was settled down into the dark bear fur.  Steve breathed in deeply and let it out in a huff. As he got to his feet, Bucky just twisted his face up at him, sour, like he’d eaten on an out-of-season cherry.  Bucky moved around their alcove, gathering up herbs, splints, strips of fabric for bandages, water, and anything else that caught his eye that might assist in mending Steve’s broken body.

For the next hour, Bucky spent time painstakingly cleaning Steve’s fur with a bowl of water filled with mashed herbs and seeds that he’d muddled with his metal thumb when the wooden pestle hadn’t done what he wanted.  Steve lay patiently as the pain ebbed and waned, spiking whenever Bucky had to unknot blood-tangled fur, and then clean the wound beneath that had begun to bleed again.

Wiping sweat from his brow, Bucky stroked a hand down Steve’s back, before shuffling his weight and bowing his spine, stretching so hard that a few of the vertebrae popped.  Steve turned his head from where he was resting it, and bumped his cool nose against Bucky’s knee. Reaching down, Bucky scratched lightly at Steve’s brow..

“I have to set your leg, Alpha,” Bucky said softly as he leaned down to press his forehead between Steve’s ears.  “It’ll… it’ll be easier to do it while you’re shifting, and it’ll heal faster if you’re not walking on it.” The Omega scrubbed his fingers along Steve’s jowls.  Steve huffed again, but nodded his head in a quick bob. Bucky’s hands gripped the broken forepaw, and as soon as Steve began to shed the fur, the Omega’s grip tightened stretched, and popped the bones back into place. The howl in Steve’s throat dwindled with the shift into a pained groan.  Sweat slicked his entire body, but the cool air in their alcove sent gooseflesh across his skin. Soon enough he was shivering, only half-aware as Bucky set Steve’s forearm with a splint after propping him up on a stack of their nest furs. Steve drifted in and out of consciousness for a little while after that.  He knew Bucky had covered him with a fur, and had pressed a cool cloth over his forehead. His fussing Omega had stoked their fire, and made sure Steve drank lots of water.

It could have been an hour later, or several hours, when Steve truly came back to awareness.  There was a warm weight against his side, curled up under his good arm. The broken one throbbed with each heartbeat and it matched the pounding in his head.  Yeah, he’d been an idiot, just like Bucky had said. They should have been prepared for an ambush. He should have nipped in the bud early on… or… He should have done exactly what Brock suggested he should have done.  As the chief Alpha, he should have taken an Omega long ago.

But he was glad he hadn’t.  The Omega sleeping under his arm wouldn’t be his.  Since the vampires had broken their connection, Steve would have bonded with someone else, and would never be able to take Bucky back.  Not… not in the same way. There were old tales, like the ones strewn across the walls of their home, that told of Alphas, particularly the chiefs of the tribes, taking harems, and killing off any Alphas born to their Omegas.  Hell, if he’d done that with a new mate and Bucky, it would have only spurred Brock’s hatred. Perhaps even more wolves who’d come from the Crossbones pack would have turned on him.

His fingers slowly drifted up and down Bucky’s arm.  It was the metal one - one he rarely touched. Bucky was… sensitive about it.  Of course Steve understood why. It must have been difficult to be torn out of a form you were born in, had never changed from, and then to  have had some strange device that smelled like copper and sulphur permanently affixed to your body. Steve pressed his nose down onto Bucky’s hair, and watched his fingertips trace over the metal plates, over the runic star at the ball of his shoulder, then down again.  The plates suddenly clicked shut against his fingertips, and he hissed lightly. Against his chest, he felt Bucky smile, bite his bottom lip, and suppress a laugh that still jostled his body a bit.

“You little jerk,” Steve growled lightly, playfully, but only drew Bucky in more tightly to his side.  If he’d been feeling better, he might have rolled Bucky under him and ‘punished’ him for the slight. Bucky seemed to know that as he tipped his head up, throat exposed at just the right angle, even if there was a tiny smirk on his lips.  Grumbling wordlessly, Steve pinched the back of his neck before stroking his index finger across their bondmark. Bucky’s eyes fluttered briefly, and he purred softly in response. Steve’s fingers followed the rattle to his voice box, where he gently set the tips so he could feel the rumble straight down to the bone.

“You know… watching you take out those wolves…” Steve murmured as he lightly applied pressure to Bucky’s Adam’s apple.  Bucky’s smirk only grew a little wider. He had to be feeling so good about himself. Yes, it had taken a long time for Bucky to figure out how to shift.  It was unprecedented, so there was no real guidance that Steve could give to help him, but Bucky’d slipped in and out of wolf form as easy as anything.

“Felt good… felt really good to shift,” Bucky whispered after Steve had gone quiet.  Metal fingertips fluttered across Steve’s chest, as Steve’s moved to stroke down Bucky’s spine.

“Looked good, too.  Never knew that watching you fight like that would… Gods, Buck, you could have been hurt,” Steve rambled, flipping from one topic to another.  He’d chalk it up to a head injury if he could. Too bad the wolves had gone for his vital organs instead of his head. Bucky blinked up at him curiously, but it lasted only a moment.  Between one blink and the next, Bucky’s entire expression changed to something sultry - hooded eyes, slightly parted lips, and pupils that were blown wide.

“Could have, yeah, but I didn’t.  I don’t really remember taking them out.  Only that you were in danger and I had to  _ do something _ .  I remember draining Jack, but… but it’s sort of a blur up to that point,” Bucky mumbled, and something like a blush came across his cheeks. Steve’s eyebrow rose as he ran his free thumb over Bucky’s cheek.

“What changed?”  Steve inquired softly.  Bucky glanced away towards the fire pit, brow furrowed.

“I fed… I  _ ate _ him.  Gods above, Steve, you’ve no idea what that does to me,” he mumbled as his shoulders hunched with shame.  For the most part since Bucky had been rescued, his food source had been Steve. As Steve thought back on it, Bucky seemed to almost exclusively feed during their matings.  And it felt good to Steve.

The small pinch at a vein from Bucky’s teeth and then his hindbrain kicked in.  Hand-feeding an Omega was one thing, but being their primary source of sustenance?  It fired off all of those primal nerves in his head. Perhaps Steve had been slow on the uptake.  It took Bucky straight-up telling him for him to get it.

“Oh, my sweet Omega,” he sighed sweetly, drawing him into a soft kiss.  He could feel Bucky all but vibrating under his lips, against his fingers, like the way the ground vibrated under their feet during their runs.  “Let me take care of you. You must have been crawling out of your skin waiting for me to wake up,” he continued with a wicked smile. Under his arm, Bucky squirmed slightly.

“You’re hurt, Steve.  You have to take it easy for a little while,” Bucky urged despite his conflicted expression.  Want warred with concern openly on the Omega’s face. Steve hummed in agreement as he traced Bucky’s mouth with a slow kiss.

“Then why not put your pretty mouth to use, hm?”  Steve teased, before flicking his tongue forward to lightly curl against one of Bucky’s sharp canines.  Bucky’s brow furrowed lightly but then smoothed as the realization dawned. He bit his lip and moved slowly to keep from jostling Steve.

“That’s it,” Steve murmured, as he stroked fingers into Bucky’s hair.  The Omega moved Steve just enough to lay him back further, so very careful of Steve’s injuries in every movement he made.  Stormy, almost luminous, blue eyes watched Steve’s face carefully as Bucky settled on his knees between Steve’s legs. Bucky’s hands fluttered over Steve, obviously worried about where it was okay to touch, and where it wasn’t.  All the while, Steve stroked his hair and watched intently, right up until Bucky gave that first, shy, kitten lick against the tip of his half-engorged cock.

“Oh, Buck,” Steve whispered reverently.  He nearly felt dizzy as blood rushed southward, eager to take advantage of the soft but thorough licks that touched his most intimate parts.  Steve fisted a handful of hair to keep it out of Bucky’s face, because he was  _ desperate _ to see Bucky’s sweet little tongue caress him.

Hissing softly, Steve held Bucky’s head still by a handful of hair and moved his hips to press his cocktip against those soft lips.  Bucky complied almost immediately - his jaw loosened and his mouth opened. Steve fed his cock into his mate’s mouth, slowly, bringing Bucky’s head down incrementally.  Saliva slithered from Bucky’s stretched lips, slicking up the movements of his mouth as he took more and more. Bucky’s whole body moved with the urging. He remained on his knees, hands braced on Steve’s thick thighs, but his backside was sticking up with the curve in his spine, and his mouth was open and accepting, just like his hole usually was.

It was a beautiful sight, especially once Bucky’s nose was tucked into the coarse hairs at the base of Steve’s cock.  Enthralled, Steve watched Bucky’s nostrils flare. Bucky’s moaning as his throat worked to swallow the thick shaft inside sent pleasant vibrations right into Steve’s sac.  With Bucky in place, Steve took his time. He released the soft, dark hair of his mate’s head, and stroked his fingers across his throat to feel the swollen muscles there. Then upwards, caressing the nearly unhinged joint of his jaw, the stretched-thin flesh of his cheeks and lips.

“Mmm, so good, Omega.  Look so good like this,” Steve praised as he hooked his thumb into the corner of Bucky’s mouth, filling him up just a little more.  With his thumb as a pivot point of sorts, Steve stoked his fingers through the wet hairs at the base of his shaft and smeared the pooled saliva across Bucky’s cheek.

Bucky’s stormy eyes were open, though hooded, pupils blown wide wonder and arousal.  Bucky’s tongue slithered across the throbbing vein on the underside of Steve’s cock in order to greet his thumb and give it those same tentative licks.  The scent of Bucky’s slick was thick in the air, and Steve wished he could get his mate under him to ease the ache he’d been dealing with since killing Jack.  Soon enough.

Pulling his wet thumb out of Bucky’s mouth with a soft pop, Steve hummed and gathered up Bucky’s hair in a fist at the back of his neck again.  How he craved to use both of his hands, but one was in the splint, useless and elevated at his side. One would have to do.

“Relax,” Steve coaxed through an aroused rumble in his chest.  Bucky complied beautifully again, and more saliva puddled into Steve’s groin.  Slowly, so slowly, Steve guided Bucky’s head upward by his hair. Inch after soaked inch slid from Bucky’s wet lips, and it was all Steve could do not to shove his head right back down again.

It was sheer torture to feed his cock back into his mate’s mouth.  Slow, so slow, inching the tip of his shaft into the tight, wet throat, so careful not to push in the wrong spot and make him gag.  Or maybe his mate wouldn’t gag at all.  _ Fuck _ if that thought didn’t send electricity zipping up Steve’s spine.  Steve repeated it a few times. Lazy and thorough, making sure that he filled Bucky’s mouth and throat completely before pulling him up again.

His poor Omega was whining each time he was pulled off, in spite of the wetness over his jaw, his throat, and maybe just a little leaking from his eyes.  Every so often, he’d pull Bucky off all the way, head pulled completely way back so Steve could look over his messy mate greedily. His sweet Bucky, so lost in pleasure, he’d forget that he breathed sometimes, and suck in a breath or two, before Steve was guiding his mouth back down onto his cock.

Digging his heels into the furs, Steve gave in.  The pace that he moved Bucky’s head increased to the point where his cock pricked in the right places, forcing a guttural noise out of Bucky whenever he pushed against it.  Bucky’s spit trickled down his shaft, over Steve’s sac, making him squirm into the mess his naughty Omega was making. But oh, how good he was; how perfect and wonderful, with a beautiful mouth.  Steve was sure he was babbling all those words out loud, but it didn’t matter. The glands of his knot began to swell, the skin tightening as it began to expand.

“Mmm… want my knot, my sweet Omega?”  Steve inquired, voice a rough growl and breathy with pleasure.  Muffled with his mouth full of cock, Bucky whined and urgently swallowed around Steve, quickly pulling at the shaft with his whole throat before it was taken away again.  Bucky’s agile tongue darted out to taste at the knot whenever he was close. When the knot started to get too big, and Bucky was struggling with unhinging his jaw a little more to release it, Steve gave in.

He pushed Bucky’s head right down into his lap and held it there by the nape of his neck.  He felt Bucky’s lips curl over his teeth protectively, like he knew what was going to happen.  The last sight Steve got was of Bucky’s flesh hand slipping from Steve’s thigh to stroke his own shaft.  Lying back to keep his balance, Steve began to rock his hips upward, grinding himself into Bucky’s mouth.  The knot pulled pleasantly at the back of Bucky’s teeth.

Steve moaned through his possessive growling.  No Alpha would ever experience this. Filthy and perfect all at once, and with his Omega.  That thought alone was enough to nudge Steve over the crest. He shouted shamelessly, all but announcing to the pack beyond the heavy leather curtains what was occurring within their nest.  Bucky was moaning too, and distantly, Steve was aware of warmth spattering against his calves.

Dizzy from the experience, Steve stroked Bucky’s hair and rubbed at his scalp gently to soothe any aches he may have caused.  When he had the strength, Steve rolled his head to the side onto his own shoulder to gaze down at Bucky. The Omega’s eyes were closed, lips puffy from what they’d just done, and wrapped perfectly behind Steve’s knot.  Inside, he could feel Bucky’s tongue pressed down under it; feel his teeth, the sharp incisors carefully held away to prevent any injury.

Most importantly,  Bucky appeared positively blissful.  He’d laid himself out on his belly, ignorant of the mess he’d made with his own climax.  His arms were gently curled around Steve’s waist, keeping them close together as they lay quietly in the afterglow.  

~ =☆= ~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am a lying liar who lies, but are you really upset about it?
> 
> Come be my friend on [Tumblr](https://miss-aphi.tumblr.com)!


	6. Bad Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “They’re different, but they’re in the same situation. You let me come home in spite of… everything,” Bucky said softly against his mate’s skin. Steve was bristling again, fixing to level Bucky with a dressing-down about how he’d had no choice, and he was still the same Omega. It wasn’t a new conversation. Likely not the first time it would have been overheard, either. Steve must have realized it too because his frustration fizzled out and his shoulders slouched.

“No,” Steve all but growled.  It drew Bucky out of his afternoon snooze enough that he rolled over in the furs, luxuriating in the feeling of enveloping softness; more like a feline than a canine, but he wasn’t about to open up that particular can of body dysmorphia.

Blinking his vision clear of sleep, Bucky peered towards the heavy curtains of leather that blocked the alcove off from the rest of the cave.  The banked firelight glinted off the smooth skin of his Alpha’s back. The hand that only just been fully free of a splint a few days ago was holding up one of the flaps, and his big body was blocking most of the dull light from beyond, but Bucky could make out loose, ruddy curls and a lean frame attached to them.

“Chief,” Natasha sighed with barely concealed annoyance.  The harsh clip to her tone was what drew Bucky from his nest.  The wood pallet beneath the furs creaked with his movement, but neither the Alpha or Beta seemed to pay him any mind, even as he padded closer.

“ _ No _ , Natasha. Taking in another pack is one thing, but you’re asking me to invite a  _ pride  _ into our home?  Have you taken leave of your damned sense?  They’re  _ felines _ .  We couldn’t even bring in another pack of our own kind without it going to absolute anarchy,”  Steve hissed even as Bucky stood behind him with his cheek between Steve’s shoulder blades, rubbing on his mate.  Another sigh from beyond Steve told him that Natasha was not alone outside of their space.

“Steve, come on.  Be logical about this.  Our numbers are down, and we need the extra hands to build up our reserves before the winter,” Sam stated.  Bucky could feel every muscle in Steve’s back tighten, and he knew why. Their numbers had already been depleted by the vampire attack a few years prior. Couple that with the killing several of their best hunters weeks ago, and they would be in dire straits come the cold season.

Above his head, Steve was drumming his fingers on the frame of their door.  Agitation was pouring off of him. Instinct pressed Bucky to attempt to soothe his Alpha.  Curling his flesh arm around Steve’s middle, Bucky tucked his whole body up against Steve’s, and gave him a small squeeze of encouragement.  Steve’s hand settled over his wrist, and the soft gesture was returned in kind with one squeeze.

“They lost everything, Alpha.  The vampires razed their den and slaughtered their elders.  Only a few of them made it out with their kits,” Sam implored.  Steve’s fingers continued to tap overhead, and Bucky chewed his lip.

“They’re different, but they’re in the same situation.  You let me come home in spite of… everything,” Bucky said softly against his mate’s skin.  Steve was bristling again, fixing to level Bucky with a dressing-down about how he’d had no choice, and he was still the same Omega.  It wasn’t a new conversation. Likely not the first time it would have been overheard, either. Steve must have realized it too because his frustration fizzled out and his shoulders slouched.

“Fine. I’ll meet with their leader and see if we can come to an accord,” Steve muttered, undoubtedly frustrated that he’d been outvoted. Their pack was not a democracy by any means, but Steve was a rare breed of Alpha. He had advisors in Sam and Natasha, and listened to Bucky’s thoughts and ideas in spite of his designation.  With a satisfied smile that just barely upturned her lips, Natasha shifted mid-turn on her heel and took off at a run.

Once Sam excused himself, Steve let the drape fall and turned to curl his arms around Bucky.  Immediately, he nuzzled down into the curve of his throat, lips pattering over their bondmark in silence.  It was a gesture Bucky knew well; one that had begun even before they’d been officially bonded.

“Am I making the right decision?” Steve eventually asked with words muffled by Bucky’s skin.  Bucky was hardly one to judge, but he squeezed gently around Steve’s waist all the same.

“ _ Is _ there a right decision?  It sounds like they escaped by the skin of their teeth, and I would imagine most of their skilled fighters did not make it out alive,” Bucky said quietly.  It went unsaid, but they both knew what to expect: Omegas and their kit. More mouths to feed, and their stores were already dwindling. It would take time to refill them… But perhaps a few of those mouths would be useful hunters.

“After… after I lost you, I let Brock and his pack come here. It was a fight at every turn even once he showed throat.  Every decision was met with a disagreement; I think he enjoyed being contrary,” Steve began softly, fingers squeezing against the back of Bucky’s neck.  Bucky sighed and cinched his arms around Steve’s waist just a little tighter.

“Well… like you said, Steve,  these are felines. They’re different.  Maybe how we come together needs to be different, too,” Bucky suggested, though he had no idea how they’d achieve that, or what it would look like if they did it.  Steve went quiet again against his shoulder.

~ =☆= ~

Several hours later, Bucky wrapped himself up in his cloak, more to hide the metallic arm’s heavy scarring than for warmth.  He’d given up on pacing off his nerves when Clint and Sam arrived with a chair and placed it in front of the mother fire. It was made from wolf bone and wood, with a straw-stuffed, leather cushion.  Once upon a time, it had been the throne of the previous Alpha; an Alpha that had nearly driven their pack to ruination with his…  _ style _ of leadership.

Steve glowered miserably at the throne.  Bucky knew it was a reminder of the first challenge Steve had ever made after he presented as an Alpha.  The old Alpha had taken to the idea of being the only breeding stock for the Omegas in his pack, inbreeding be damned.  Even with a sickly constitution and bones that creaked with every movement, Steve had challenged the old bastard, who had laughed in his face and kicked Steve so hard that he broke three ribs.  Thank the gods that they’d only had to live like that for a few months -  _ with Bucky hiding his designation with a poultice of wolfsbane that set his skin on fire with a rash _ \- before Steve had had a massive growth spurt and issued his second challenge to the Alpha that had seceded the vengeful, horny asshole after his death.

Stubbornly, Steve ended up draping the throne in furs from their nest, instead of leaving the bones of defeated Alphas on display.  With a grunt, he all but threw his weight into the throne, probably in hopes of breaking it so it couldn’t be used. Alas, the structure held firm, and Steve forced himself to settle into it.  His bare heels dug into the dirt, and he had a handful of the furs over one arm in his fist.

Bucky’s hindbrain thrummed happily in spite of his Alpha’s displeasure.  Whether it liked the way Steve was displayed in a seat of power, or because it was his  _ Steve, _ Bucky didn’t bother to think deeper on it.  Steve must have noticed his amused expression because he cast Bucky a sour look before pointing at his own knee.

“Come here, Omega,” Steve groused, and if that didn’t make his hindbrain start to purr, well, Bucky would be a liar.  Gracefully, Bucky perched on Steve’s knee and adjusted his cloak to drape over Steve’s legs before leaning in to nuzzle at his ear.

“Would it help to tell you all about the things I want you to do to me in this chair?”  Bucky whispered as he pressed a smiling kiss against the top of Steve’s ear. Steve’s arm curled around Bucky’s waist and he gave a meaningful squeeze to Bucky’s hip.

“Minx,” Steve grumbled though some of the tension visibly left his furrowed brow.  There was no time for Bucky to celebrate that little victory as Pepper appeared beside them with a low  _ wuff _ of warning.  Beneath him, Steve forced his body to melt comfortably into the throne, knees wide and a hand possessively resting on Bucky’s hip.  Around them, the wolves gathered in both wolf and human form. Maria and her pups were nowhere in sight, though Sam had positioned himself to sit on his haunches in front of the closed flaps of their alcove.

Ahead of them, the mouth of the cave glowed with the sunlight that kept Bucky inside.  Dark figures began to fill the space, and a pushcart trundled noiselessly along the grass.  A hulking male, dressed in a loincloth adorned in jagged teeth, breached the threshold first.  He was as broad as an ox. He had been the one labouring with the pushcart, so the dark flesh that was pulled taut over his densely corded muscles was covered in a healthy sheen of sweat.  Nodding his head barely halfway was the only deference he provided to the wolf pack before he clapped his fist against his chest.

“ _ Yibambe, _ ” he called over his shoulder to his pride, with a voice that wasn’t so much loud as it was deep and rich.  Behind him, the single word was echoed with a small cacophony of voices. Beside the ox, another male all but slipped out of his fur coat to stand on two feet.

“M’Baku,” the other male said in a tone that brooked no argument.  He was smaller than the first male, but no less powerful. The satiny, molasses-like enunciation of the other’s name sent a pleasant wave down Bucky’s spine.  Unnerved by the response, he leaned a bit closer to his Alpha, as the second male moved ahead of the first and offered the same half-nod in greeting. Close to his side, but a half pace or so behind, was a sleek panther, her fur black as night except for a spattering of grey spots across her nose.

“T’Challa; welcome to our den,” Steve greeted before the other had a chance to say another word.  As much as Steve hated the show of being chief to other packs, he fell into the role beautifully. Steve’s grip remained steady on Bucky, even as he brought both of them to their feet in one smooth motion.  Moving in step, they rounded the mother fire to greet their guests directly. Bucky would have preferred to hang back, of course, but Steve needed him, and that trumped all else.

“Please, bring your pride inside,” Steve added as he peered over T’Challa’s shoulder.  The pushcart had a few kits standing inside to watch the proceedings, along with a young female that was watching just the same… right up until she locked eyes with Bucky and then nudged the kits back behind the wooden wall.  She scowled unconvincingly as she changed her position to appear larger and more menacing. It did little to help as far as Bucky was concerned. Her lean frame was draped in the same soft leathers M’Baku wore, adorned in teeth and delicate bones, dyed or scorched, that were sewn into the pattern of a panther’s spots.

M’Baku was already moving to wheel the cart inside.  Once it hit the stone floor, it rattled and trembled, like it had been on its last legs the entire trip here.  The adult panthers moved into the cave as well, positioning themselves around the vulnerable cart. Bucky couldn’t blame them.  The energy around them all was apprehension, over-awareness, waiting for the most insignificant of slights so that one or both Alphas could call the whole thing off.

“ _ Oof _ , be careful!” The female in the cart complained when M’Baku lowered his burden gracelessly with a bang that made Bucky’s teeth rattle.  M’Baku’s expression broke briefly into a smile before he schooled it behind a scowl.

“Perhaps if  _ you  _ had been more careful,  _ you  _ wouldn’t have broken  _ your  _ leg,” M’Baku chastised, though amusement had lit up his entire expression.  The female rose up again, a finger jabbed in M’Baku’s direction.

“Shuri,” T’Challa warned, though it came out more like an exasperated sigh.  Bucky bit the inside of his lip to keep from smiling before holding his flesh hand out, palm up, towards the cart.

“May I?  Our healer was killed in the last attack, but I know a couple of things about a couple of things,” Bucky offered.  Hopefully… hopefully it would ease some of the tension between the pride and the pack. T’Challa looked Bucky over.  Bucky had taken measures to disguise his… conflicting genetics: his hair was loose, hiding his ears, and he spoke somewhat closed-lipped to hide the points of his feeder fangs.  The only thing he couldn’t really hide was his metal arm, but he kept that at his side, amidst the folds of red wool and rabbit fur. The panther Alpha gave Bucky a curt nod before focusing on Steve, likely to talk logistics, to barter shelter and warmth for the remnants of his pride.

Bucky’s bare feet were silent as he made his way to the cart.  A few of the kits within skittered away to hide behind the Beta female.  One braver panther cub stood up on his back legs to snuffle at Bucky curiously when he offered his fingers patiently.

“Aren’t you sweet...” Bucky purred when the kit bumped his whole head into Bucky’s palm.  Bucky carefully rubbed his thumb behind the cub’s ear while he subtly took a look over Shuri’s leg.  Her right calf was swollen and purple, elevated on folded blankets and wedged in between rolled-up furs to keep it still. She had been squeezed into the cart amidst packs of cured meat and fish, as well as covered woven baskets Bucky could only guess at the contents.

“Perhaps you should paint a portrait with all your staring,” Shuri challenged, all piss and vinegar - enough of a bite to her voice that Bucky felt the weight of M’Baku’s gaze, hot on the back of his neck.  Bucky drew his gaze up to her face. Proud, strong, saving face in spite of the sheer agony she was probably in. Bucky caught the faint traces of fear in her eyes once her nostrils flared to catch his scent.  Leaning forward, Bucky folded his arms on the edge of the cart and cocked his head to the side. He pursed his lips together thoughtfully before a crooked grin pulled his lips back enough to expose his feeder fangs.

“I’d be more than happy to leave you to heal on your own and have a silly walk for the rest of your life,” Bucky offered with a nonchalant shrug as he leaned in closer to whisper.  Shuri shrank back, though she couldn’t go far with the wall of the cart propping her up.

“But between you and me?  My Alpha’s stubborn enough for everyone in this cave, and he let me set his arm, so… how about we just get you out of this cart and pretend I cowed to your demands with the promise of a mural dedicated to you?” Bucky teased.  Shuri seemed to be stunned, gawping at Bucky like he’d spontaneously grown another head. She slapped a hand over her mouth to muffle the cackle that threatened to explode out of her. Grinning crookedly again, Bucky nodded his head and got to work, carefully wrapping her leg so it wouldn’t be jostled too much between the cart and the previous healer’s home.

M’Baku ended up moving in to help stabilize Shuri’s leg by holding a fur tightly around it and keeping it elevated while Bucky carried Shuri to an alcove deeper within the cave.  Bucky was under no false pretenses that M’Baku was just helping out. He kept looking at Bucky like he might turn into a bat and start flying around the room. Not that Bucky wouldn’t do it for the shock value, but that was one piece of lore the lycans had gotten all wrong from the beginning.

Between them, they managed to get Shuri onto an elevated pallet.  The poor female was sweating and paler than she had been in the cart from the movement.  Bucky hustled around the room for the materials he’d need, recalling where they were easily.  He’d been in here only a few weeks prior to get the same remedies and materials to set Steve’s arm.

“You smell funny,” M’Baku blurted out quite suddenly, which caused Bucky to pause with a pestle and mortar in his hand.  He turned to arch a brow at the large male, and though Shuri was looking offended on Bucky’s behalf, there was a glimmer of curiosity in her eye in spite of how unwell she looked.  Bucky shrugged his left shoulder as he returned to Shuri’s side, while rocking the pestle into the seeds and leaves within the mortar.

“Most likely,” Bucky agreed without elaborating further.  It wasn’t their business, and he wasn’t about to air his grievances to complete strangers, regardless of their intentions.  The mortar  _ tupped _ softly against the raised pallet once Bucky set it down.  He moved closer to inspect Shuri’s leg, lips parted to smell her.  Young. Terrified. Sad. But no sign of infection around the break.  That was good.

Bucky was careful as he laid out splints on either side of her leg and gave her a bit of honeycomb to suck on for what he knew would be a painful procedure.  He didn’t relish it. He didn’t want to hurt anyone except the vampires that had made him what he was. But they were all dead. He’d only wished he’d been able to stay and watch the coven burn in front of Alexander’s eyes before he’d gone up in smoke himself.

His flesh hand wrapped around Shuri’s ankle and he looked up to her with an expression of guilt as the metal one cupped the back of her knee.  Thankfully, he didn’t have to say anything. Shuri twisted enough to grab onto M’Baku’s arm and sucked in a deep breath. M’Baku barely had time to grab on and hold her still before Bucky pulled her ankle and set the bone.  The honeycomb crunched between her teeth as she grit them, but Shuri did not cry out.

“I’m sorry,” Bucky whispered as he hastily wrapped the splint around her calf to keep the bones from healing out of place again.  Breathing hard, Shuri nodded and waved a trembling hand dismissively.

They were quiet for a time as Bucky puttered about, covering the exposed parts of her leg with a cooling balm, and making sure she ate all of the little bits of honeycomb to keep her strength up.  

“You are not so bad. For a vampire,” Shuri replied after a fashion.  Bucky smothered his startled response, and composed himself before catching her eye.

“I’m not a vampire,” Bucky replied, even as the half-lie twisted round his tongue and made his stomach tie into knots.  He was. He was a parasite. He fed on his own mate in order to survive and couldn’t venture into the sun. He hadn’t  _ seen _ the sun since Steve had carried him home from the coven he’d been a prisoner in for…  _ for too damned long, _ and even then, he’d only seen it for a flash of a moment before the rays had become unbearable and he’d been forced to hide.

“Then what are you?”  Shuri inquired. Silently, Bucky assessed her.  There was no real judgement in her tone. A bit of fear, perhaps suspicion, but mostly, Shuri was just curious.  Bucky held her gaze for another moment before breaking off and busying himself with cleaning up the detritus from her procedure.

“Something else,” he admitted, as vague as that response was.  A quick peek at Shuri’s face informed him that she was not, and would not be, satisfied by that answer.  For his part, M’Baku had just taken up root by the entry, arms folded across his barrel chest and looking completely amused.

“And your arm: it is magical  _ and  _ mechanical?”  Shuri pressed, as her nostrils flared,  likely trying to track more of Bucky’s peculiar scent.  Maybe Bucky shouldn’t have given her so much honeycomb. She didn’t look as flushed anymore, and had strength enough to prop herself up on her elbows.

“Yes…” Bucky replied as patiently as he could muster.  Shuri made a thoughtful noise from the back of her throat, and ended up wriggling up the rest of the way, mindful of her damaged leg, to get a closer look.

“Do you have the same aversions of the vampires?  Garlic, sun…” Shuri inquired, though it didn’t sound condescending;  Vampire weaknesses were well known. She held her hand out patiently, and Bucky reluctantly put his mechanized one in it.  The she-panther’s expression was focused, controlled, but the way she talked was far away.

“Not exactly.  The sun, yes, but nothing else that I’ve found.  Nothing that didn’t bother me… before…” He trailed off quietly, and was grateful when Shuri didn’t press for more information.  However, Bucky could feel M’Baku’s gaze harden in his direction, and did all he could to ignore it. Shuri flicked her claws against the plates in his hand, and pressed a few of them, for what purpose, Bucky couldn’t fathom.  She went so far as to dig her claw tip into the center of his metallic palm, withdrawing only when it was evident that Bucky had no sensation in the appendage.

“When you picked me up out of the cart, your face was lit by in the sun,” Shuri finally broke the silence between them.  

Bucky moved so quickly, he hadn’t even realized he’d grasped her wrist firmly until M’Baku had his hand around Bucky’s silver one.  His heart bobbed in his throat as they stood there, grabbing onto one another in a way that was unintentionally keeping Bucky from toppling over with shock.  His flesh fingers moved up to touch his face, where the skin was somewhat warm from Steve having fed him that morning, but smooth, unblemished by blisters or dryness.

Wrenching his arm free, Bucky ran from the alcove in a flurry of red wool.  Whatever chatter had filled the common cave died as he rushed by towards the open mouth of the cave.  Amidst the storm in his ears, he heard Steve call his name.

Outside of the cave’s mouth, illuminated by daylight, Bucky threw off his cloak and tipped his face up towards the shining heavens.  Warmth spread over his skin, but it didn’t make the flesh feel taut and painful; it didn’t feel like he’d rolled himself into the mother fire.  His eyes closed as he relished the warmth seeping deep into his skin, pulling the perpetual chill from the marrow of his bones.

Fingers threaded through his to hang on tight, and beside him, Steve let out a shaky breath.  Bucky didn’t look to his Alpha until Steve had lifted his hand and pressed his lips to Bucky’s knuckles.  Stuck in that tableau, Bucky allowed the agony of the last three years to wash over him. Bathed in the sunlight, the torture and neglect of the coven, the fear of harming his mate, the rejection of his tribe, and the betrayal of his own body was brought forth in a bubble of emotion that wracked his whole frame with a sob, and weakened his knees.  Steve gathered him close; warmth, strength, and security all in that singular embrace.

But not everyone had been so lucky.  Not everyone had been able to come home like Loki and Bucky.  There had been pups and Omegas in all of the kennels that had lined one wall of the stronghold’s cellar.  Bucky closed his eyes hard and buried his face into the side of Steve’s neck. Those… those  _ bastards _ had kept them locked away from the sun for three years.  And even when Bucky came home, he’d been sure that he would never see the sun again, lest he perish in its sight.  Even after Steve had rescued him, he had been a prisoner.  _ No. More. _

“Revenge isn’t the answer, Buck,” Steve whispered into Bucky’s hair.  Had he been talking aloud? He supposed so, or maybe it had been in his head… hopefully only to Steve, and not broadcast along the connection for all his pack to hear.  Setting his jaw, Bucky forced his spine straight and glowered up at Steve.

“And what drove you to the coven in the first place, Steve?” Bucky hissed, rage settling into his gut and wrapping hotly around his tongue.  Not at his Alpha… never him. But at the world that had forced them all to endure. “What drove you to make Alexander watch while his coven burned? To string him up and let the sun have him once he’d suffered that anguish?”  Bucky pressed, as he jabbed a finger into Steve’s chest. The Alpha didn’t move, of course, but Steve’s blue eyes narrowed and he forced Bucky’s hand to lay flat over his heart.

“Call it whatever nobler thing you want to, Steve.  But they are still out there. Alexander’s sire and those that taught Arnim how to do this,” Bucky drummed his metal fingers under Steve’s grip pointedly.  “They are still out there, and probably doing the same thing to others. I’m going to find them, whether you come or not,” Bucky added. He wasn’t asking permission - he’d  _ never _ asked Steve’s permission, even if it was expected of him.

Was Bucky afraid?  Of course he was. Not of the vampires, but of the judgement from his Alpha; the disdain that he expected to see from his mate and the disgust that he would let something like revenge guide his actions, when their whole pack had nearly been extinguished from such pettiness.  But Steve’s expression was stoic, honed like a knife’s edge.

“As you wish, Omega-mine,” Steve whispered, and he ducked to steal a kiss, dragging Bucky closer in the warmth of the sun so he could  _ feel _ just how much Steve approved of the stubborn cut of Bucky’s body.  The pressure of Steve’s half-hard cock against Bucky’s hip pulled the wind from his sails, but approval, the silent  _ praise _ and possessive promise in Steve’s voice… that was all Bucky needed.

~ =☆= ~


	7. Infection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With his appearance, the rest of the town seemed to come alive, stirring from their daylit slumber.  
> The smell that carried towards them was unimaginable as shop doors opened and the village of vampires began to roam about, making themselves appear human. For the wolves’ benefit, no doubt. But the odor - a mixture of that sulphuric magic scent, blood, and rot - it was almost too much, yet somehow, it was enticing… delicious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! Sister came up for an impromptu movie night.

It only took four-and-a-half days for Natasha and Clint to track down Johann Schmidt.

The worst part was that he had not gone far at all.  He had not run when his childe’s coven had burned to the ground in the middle of the night, with their burned bodies neatly stacked in the foyer.  No, it was much worse than that.

What remained of the town had been turned, and they had smelled the pair coming miles away.  Though Clint and Natasha had evaded them the first time, it had been slow-going from that point on.  They struggled to remain downwind as a storm rolled in from the east, and rather than producing rain and drowning out every scent but the strongest, it had merely electrified the air, amplifying everything with a charged layer of ozone.

But finally, Schmidt had revealed himself.  He had emerged from the overly-opulent mayor’s home in the town’s square, and strolled up and down the main road for over an hour, poking into shops that had human body parts hanging in the windows rather than rations, supplies or textiles.  For the next day and a half, he repeated this venture eight more times.

_ It’s a trap, _ Natasha stated, voice flat in the back of Bucky’s mind, even as she guided him along towards the town.  Their strike team was split into three units this time, and was filled with every able-bodied wolf and panther at their call.  Steve was on his other side. The stubborn Alpha had refused to head up another team. Instead, he’d left that to T’Challa and Thor.

_ Really! You think so? _ Bucky inquired, equally flat as his ears flicked back with annoyance in spite of Natasha’s unimpressed expression.

The agitation had been growing steadily since Natasha and Clint had departed for their mission.  He’d been sure it was anxiety over the course of action he intended to take, but as the hours slid by while he baked himself under the sun just because he could, dread had taken up root, too.  Worse, the inexplicable tug to the town where he’d been held for so long had only cemented into a trail he could follow when Clint had confirmed Schmidt’s location. Something was calling, tugging him back here.

More worrisome still was that Loki admitted to him privately to having the same sensation; the same summoning pull that had him padding to the cave’s entrance more times than he could count before shaking it off and returning to Thor’s side.  The pull hadn’t been as strong for Bucky, but it had been there, curling around his mind while he slept, or while awake when his mind was quiet. Of course he hadn’t mentioned it to Steve, nor had Loki mentioned it to Thor. It would have kept them off the battlefield, and that was something they could not abide by.  An unspoken agreement had passed between them not to bring it up, either.

_ Do all wolves bicker like this?  If so, I will take exile, _ Okoye, one of the panther females, rumbled from behind them.  It had been on a wing and a prayer that the blood-bonds that linked their minds together would work cross-species.  The Goddess of Luck had been on their side for once.

_ You should see us on a bad day! _ Clint offered, cheerfully as ever.  Okoye’s big, yellow eyes blinked slowly at Clint, who was happily sitting on his haunches, tail tapping quietly up and down over his own paws.

_ Wolves, _ Okoye muttered to herself, pointedly ensuring that the four wolves in her company heard it.

Natasha’s overlook was downwind from the town; the same spot that she and Clint had watched Schmidt make himself available to attack multiple times throughout the nights.  The two other strike teams were spread out on either side of them, which was not a point in their favor. It would have assisted greatly if the rain would come, allowing them to enter the town from three different access points spread out around it, but luck was not on their side.

_ There he is, _ Natasha announced.  At the top of the main drag where the mayor’s estate sat, the front door opened into the twilight, and out strolled a tall, gaunt male with a bald head and narrowed eyes cast at the dull horizon.  Bucky’s stomach twisted uncomfortably. It felt like Schmidt could see them through the darkness and wilderness.

With his appearance, the rest of the town seemed to come alive, stirring from their daylit slumber.

The smell that carried towards them was unimaginable as shop doors opened and the village of vampires began to roam about, making themselves appear human.  For the wolves’ benefit, no doubt. But the  _ odor _ \- a mixture of that sulphuric magic scent, blood, and rot - it was almost too much, yet somehow, it was enticing…  _ delicious. _

_ Bucky, _ his Alpha’s voice snapped him to attention.  He blinked and turned back to look at Steve. Back?  He couldn’t recall moving forward. Steve was up on all fours, fur ruffled out slightly.  Natasha and Okoye were watching Bucky closely, and Clint had taken the momentary distraction to plop himself down right in front of Bucky.

_ What? _ Bucky inquired, bewildered as Steve padded towards him and snuffled at his throat and then nipped over their bondmark.  Fire burned down Bucky’s spine at the press of Steve’s teeth, and he grunted as his body crumbled to the earth. Steve growled quietly as he shifted the grip of his teeth over the nape of Bucky’s neck to keep him pliant.

_ You were heading for the village.  You saw Schmidt, asked if we could hear ‘it’, and began moving like he’d called you, _ Natasha explained.  Bucky blearily blinked up at her.  The world around him was starting to clear, and the wave of heat down his spine was escaping out the tip of his tail.  Eventually, Steve released his neck and Bucky dragged his sorry self back to his paws.

_ Ah… damn it. Look! _  Clint growled, jerking his head out towards the village.  Vampires were all but lining the main road, milling around.  Boldly, down the middle of the road, strode two dark figures, one feline, one canine.  The vampires were jeering at them, but they made no move to stop the travelling creatures from approaching Schmidt.  Once close enough, they both dropped to their bellies, low and debasing for any of their kind. Schmidt seemed to pause and consider before he bent down to scratch behind their ears like they were common housepets.

_ Who is it? _ Okoye inquired, uncharastically clipped with anxiousness.  She’d squeezed her svelte body forward to stand next to Clint, trying to catch sight of the pair that had betrayed the pack.

_ Loki, _ Thor surmised, as he and his strike team appeared through the brush on their left.  The grief that clung to the thick coat of flaxen fur was palatable as Thor sank down on Bucky’s other side, like the entire weight of the world had crashed down atop him.

_ And Erik, _ T’Challa offered gravely, as he and the third strike team crowded onto the small plateau.

“Where is my little science project?”  Schmidt’s voice carried over the wind in the trees and the scent of death.  Bucky shuddered and pressed his whole body into Steve’s side. His metal claws dug deep into the earth to further anchor himself from following the summons.  Beneath Steve’s bondmark, the fractured rune that had long-since healed over into a scar, felt like it was trying to rip itself free of his flesh. Bucky’s jaw clenched shut to the point where he was sure his teeth would shatter.

Couldn’t the others hear him?  Couldn’t they hear Erik and Loki screaming in the backs of their minds, even as they stood solemnly beside their enemy?  Steve tugged firmly at Bucky’s ear with his teeth, and the small twinge of pain brought Bucky around again. He pushed his claws into the ground and forced himself to stand up straight.  Shaking his head hard, Bucky looked down to the village, at anything else but directly at Schmidt’s face.

That was when Bucky saw him.  Strolling out of the mayor’s home, a stocky blond man with scarring across the side of his face like he’d been burned.  But there was no mistaking his gait, or the smug, lopsided smile that made nausea bloom in Bucky’s belly. The scar at his throat felt alive, crawling with infection like it had in the cellar.

“He’ll be here.  Zola marked him before attaching that mechanical monstrosity you created,” Alexander said, though his voice was croaking and painful to listen to.  Probably even more painful to speak.

Bucky realized that he was listening to the pair through Erik and Loki, as the Loki shadow below scratched at the left side of his throat with his back leg.  Erik stood perfectly still except for the thick tail behind him that flicked back and forth irritably. Bucky closed his eyes tight again and strained for any more information.

_ New plan: take out Schmidt.  I don’t know what he’s doing, but he clearly has some sway over those two.  Take them out if we have to. Thor, take your team through the river to the-- _

_ Wait! _  Bucky jumped to all fours and turned to his Alpha, eyes wide.  Any other Alpha, and he would have been punished for interrupting his mate, but not Steve.  Bucky nosed gratefully at Steve, just once.

_ They think I’m coming, _ he spoke privately to his mate.   _ They think I’m… I don’t know how to explain it.  Erik and Loki have not chosen to be down there with him.  They were forced, just like he was trying to force me. I can get close and put Schmidt down while you and the others deal with the mob, _ Bucky explained quickly, not daring to risk using the open channel of minds, lest Loki and Erik be forced to reveal his ploy.  Steve remained quiet for a few moments before nodding his head.

_ Be careful.  Once you’re in position, we’ll charge, _ Steve agreed.  Bucky bumped their heads together firmly.

_ My love, my Alpha: everything I am belongs to you, _ Bucky promised.  He was given one more nip for good measure before he skirted away through the brush.  The scar was on fire again the further he got away from Steve’s scent, to the point where his knees were shaking and he dry-heaved while leaning against a tree.  It would not do. Whatever the infection was, he’d have to remove it before putting himself into the veritable line of fire.

Fur sluiced off his body as he shifted, crouched down low and sweating from the disease under his skin.  Scrambling for a rock at the base of the tree, Bucky snapped it in half with his metal fist and used the sharp edge to cut into the skin.  Shoving his flesh fist into his mouth to muffle his shout, Bucky carved into the faded rune, using his finger as a guide. Darkened blood dribbled down his neck and over his chest, slickening his hand and the rock, but his grip remained steady.

Right up until  _ something _ curled around his finger from inside of his skin and  _ pulled. _  Bucky dropped the stone and latched onto the coil.  He pulled and as he pulled. He could feel the muscles along his shoulder towards the metal arm coiling and tugging too.  As soon as the symbiote was removed and thrown to the ground, he crushed it under the other half of the rock before properly throwing up by his tree.

Whatever the thing was that had been living in his neck unbeknownst to anyone, including himself, was dead.  It looked like a cross between a squid and a tuber, albeit smushed now, and it positively reeked of sulphur. Wiping his mouth on the back of his fist, Bucky stumbled away from the  _ thing, _ and forced his body to shift again.

Entering the village a few minutes later was intimidating to say the least.  He did his best to approximate the gait in which Erik and Loki had walked - slow and unsteady, like they’d been trying to resist the summons but unable to do so.  He kept his head low, ears flicked back and tail still. Most importantly, he kept his mind blank of his plan… just in case.

“ _ There _ he is,” Schmidt practically cooed, and his voice was even more nauseating up close and personal.  Bucky dropped to his belly as he’d seen Loki and Erik do, averting his gaze to the paws of his absconded compatriots.  As Schmidt scratched behind his ear, Bucky had to force himself not to rear back and bite down on the vampire master’s wrist.  He breathed in time with Loki, focused on his own heartbeat to keep his mind void. Loki was breathing quick and shallow, and the pace left him feeling lightheaded, especially when Schmidt grabbed him by the scruff and hauled him up to his paws.  Bucky kept his eyes averted, ears flicked back and tail tucked close to his hindlegs.

Bucky’s stomach truly threatened to revolt as Schmidt grabbed hold of the metal paw and lifted it up.  He nearly tumbled off-balance, and he bit back on a whine as the paw was wrenched up a little too high, enough to pull at the seam of his shoulder.  Staying silent and still was extremely difficult.

“-- better than I could have hoped for.  Alexander, my son, look at this,” Schmidt purred as he stroked at the plates of Bucky’s metal arm like it was a precious gem that was as fragile as a lake’s first glaze of ice.  Alexander approached and Bucky felt a growl bubble in his throat that he had to swallow down. The smug, burned bastard grabbed Bucky by the snout, closing his fist around his muzzle.  It was a powermove. So often had they muzzled him, Loki… the other wolves that had been caged. Maybe they hadn’t all been wolves. Clearly, some had been panthers. Perhaps there had been others.  Gods above, he hoped there were no others.

“Beautiful,” Alexander agreed, giving Bucky’s muzzle a squeeze like something intimate.  The stroke of his thumb just under Bucky’s eye made everything within him want to snap.  _ Not yet,  _ he reminded himself silently.

“A perfect companion for you, don’t you agree?  Especially after the way his pack destroyed your home,” Schmidt said, a backhanded statement if Bucky had ever heard one; a calculated attack against Alexander’s failure with the burned out mansion at the other end of the road.  Alexander’s grip tightened on Bucky’s muzzle, likely as a punishment for the crime he’d not committed himself.

“I’m sure we’ll get along swimmingly,” Alexander replied tightly before finally releasing Bucky’s snout with a harsh push downward.  Schmidt dropped his paw too and Bucky lowered himself, just a bit, while pulling the metal paw from the earth. Putting weight on it made him ache… at least that’s the thought he put out into his mind.  It did hurt, but pain was something he was used to. He could handle it. Ultimately what it came down to was there was no way in hell that he was going to be Alexander’s guard dog.

A howl ripped through the charged air and Bucky shot off the ground for Alexander’s throat.  He dug his teeth in and tore through flesh and sinew with reckless abandon. Alexander may have screamed.  He didn’t know. He didn’t  _ care _ .  The taste of vampire blood on his tongue invigorated him. He howled, answering Steve’s call, only to be cut short as Erik pounced on him.  But Bucky was ready. He twisted and threw Erik off, rolling with their momentum until he was up on all fours. Digging in his claws, Bucky pushed off and ploughed his heavier weight into Loki’s lean frame. The two wolves tumbled, and Loki twisted his lithe body around to bite down on the scruff of Bucky’s neck.

The stunning bite didn’t last long. It was torn free of Bucky’s neck as Thor crashed his massive frame into Loki, dazing him and dragging him out of the fight by his scruff. Bucky shook off the stun and stood, hunched, teeth bared. The whole of their blended pack was in the fray. Steve’s beautiful white fur stood out in stark contrast to the bloodshed. And gods, he was amazing to watch. He moved his heavy, Alpha body like he was made of rubber and stone all at once. He bent and twisted around the vampires before bowling into another on his path to Bucky.

But Bucky wasn’t running for him. T’Challa was already on Erik, and Bucky was turning back to the mayor’s house. Schmidt had retreated, but Bucky could tell by the look on his face that it was strategic.  As soon as he caught Schmidt’s eye, the master vampire smiled viciously and then yanked open both doors. 

A horrendous bellow resounded from within the estate, and Schmidt stepped out of the way just in time to reveal the equally horrendous maw of teeth and drool that led the way. The hulking mass of a grizzly bear dragged itself from the darkness and let loose another bone-chilling roar. Bucky skidded to a halt, eyes going wide as the grizzly listed - as Loki and Erik had - down the steps and into the square. 

_ Bucky! _ Steve shouted into his head, but Bucky felt like he was stuck, frozen to the earth in sheer shock of what he was seeing. He’d only heard tales of the great bears, and yet, here was one before him, gaining traction with each heavy paw on the ground.

Steve appeared from his left and pounced, all teeth and claws, towards the bear. And the bear flicked Steve away like a fly, sending him careening through a store window.  The sound, coupled with watching his Alpha take flight tore him out of the stunned gaze. With the bear turning to face front, Bucky galloped towards the giant creature. With the bear distracted by Steve, it was easier for Bucky to skirt in close and vault himself upwards to grab at the shaggy hump between the animal’s shoulder blades in his teeth.  Almost immediately, a sulphuric taste and scent flooded his senses. Bucky’s eyes watered as he dug in harder, letting the unnaturally long canines, even in this form, press in, to tear and seek out the infection within.

The bear reared up on his haunches and tried to reach back, clawing at the air above Bucky’s ears.  Bucky dug his back claws in and tore through the hump until he felt it - a wriggling sensation that wasn’t muscle or nerve or sinew.  Sulphur flooded his mouth as he adjusted the grip of his teeth to bite down on the squirming tuber. Mindful not to bite in too hard and break the thing in two, Bucky dropped his weight back and dragged the symbiote free.

_ Gods, _ he thought to himself, as he pulled.  Inch after inch of revolting contagion slurped free.  It was thicker, longer, and a healthy pinkish color rather than the shrivelled black thing that Bucky had removed from his own body.  And it just kept  _ coming _ until two feet of worm-like squid was spat out viciously at his feet.  As soon as it was released, it immediately began to wriggle back towards its host, only put to a stop by Bucky digging both sets of claws in and tearing in opposite directions.  The thing gave a hideous screech and twitched on the ground as it bled out from the split.

_ What happened…? _  The bear had dropped to his belly, wobbling to and fro even with his center of gravity as low as it could possibly go.  The voice was confused, unsure, and to Bucky’s astonishment, coming from the bear himself. Bucky licked his tongue around his fangs and ejected the sulphuric tang with a gagging hack.  But the bear’s blood remained on his tongue.

_ No time to explain.  Get up and fight, or run for your life, _ Bucky urged, turning just in time to receive a perfectly-shined shoe to the face.  Stars erupted behind his eyes, and Bucky was sure he heard something  _ crunch _ as he was propelled onto his side by another kick to the side.  Schmidt leered over him as he brandished a silver blade and directed it towards the metal shoulder.

“You would have been perfect.  The perfect soldier for my childe and the model of an obedient dog.  But nay… you are undeserving of this  _ treasure,”  _ the master vampire snarled.  Fear shot down Bucky’s spine as he tried to wriggle away.  The blade cut into the seam of his shoulder and the silver sizzled his skin to boiling point.  A massive paw bashed into the side of Schmidt’s head. The vampire’s skull was half-crushed almost immediately, and in a flash, Schmidt was completely out of Bucky’s line of sight.

Bucky was rolled onto his uninjured side by steady hands that were quick to make fabric appear from…  _ somewhere _ .  The male that touched him gently smelled like a Beta coated with an Alpha’s scent.  His hair was greying and curly against his head, and there were bags under his eyes so dark they almost looked like bruises.  The stranger pressed the fabric against the knife wound and the roar in Bucky’s ear slowly slipped away so that he could actually hear what the male above him was saying.

“You’re going to be all right.  Just a little flesh wound. My name’s Bruce,” and he kept repeating it a few times until Bucky moved a paw to indicate he’d heard and understood.

_ Steve, _ Bucky urged, all but pushing Bruce away as he forced himself upright.  His shoulder ached at the joint, but he was determined, hobbling towards where Steve had been thrown.  The last of the vampires were being torn to shreds by those that had survived. A few animal corpses were strewn across the earth.

The window was shattered, and the glass cut into the delicate pads of his paws, but Bucky ignored it in favor of seeking out his Alpha.  Just as he leaned his nose in, wary of what might await him, a cool, wet nose bumped against his own. The rest of Steve was heaved over the ledge, and then curled around Bucky.  Steve’s fur was slicked with blood in places, matted down and snarled, but gods, he was alive. That was all that mattered.

~ =☆= ~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's over... OR IS IT?!
> 
> I don't know! Ask me on [Tumblr](https://miss-aphi.tumblr.com)? Maybe I'll answer truthfully, or maybe I won't!


	8. The Heart of the Matter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The heat had taken them all by surprise. It wasn’t the season for it. The strike team had barely returned to the den when warmth had spread across Bucky’s face and weakness nearly took his knees out from under him. The scent of in-season Omega had brought the exhausted crew a second wind in spite of their weariness.

 

__

__

_The credits start to roll…_

_Sebastian Stan as_

| 

Bucky  
  
---|---  
  
_Chris Evans as_

| 

Steve  
  
_Anthony Mackie as_

| 

Sam  
  
_Cobie Smulders as_

| 

Maria  
  
_Jeremy Renner as_

| 

Clint  
  
_Scarlett Johansson as_

| 

Natasha  
  
_Chris Hemsworth as_

| 

Thor  
  
_Tom Hiddleston as_

| 

Loki  
  
_Elizabeth Olson as_

| 

Wanda  
  
_Tom Holland as_

| 

Peter  
  
_Robert Downey Jr. as_

| 

Tony  
  
_Gwyneth Paltrow as_

| 

Pepper  
  
_Chadwick Boseman as_

| 

T’Challa  
  
_Winston Duke as_

| 

M’Baku  
  
_Lupita Nyong'o as_

| 

Nakia  
  
_Danai Gurira as_

| 

Okoye  
  
_Letitia Wright as_

| 

Shuri  
  
_Michael B. Jordan as_

| 

Erik  
  
_Mark Ruffalo as_

| 

Bruce  
  
_Robert Redford as_

| 

Alexander Pierce  
  
_Hugo Weaving as_

| 

Johann Schmidt  
  
_Toby Jones as_

| 

Arnim Zola  
  
_Frank Grillo as_

| 

Brock  
  
_Callan Mulvey as_

| 

Jack  
  
_Daniel Brühl as_

| 

Zemo  
  
_Brett Dalton as_

| 

Grant  
  
_Andy Serkis as_

| 

Klaue  
  
 

_The credits slip into darkness._ _Soft music swells._

 

The strike team had mostly survived.  Erik hadn’t made it. A few of the younger wolves had been heavily wounded or killed, torn apart by vampires or the…  _ pets _ that Schmidt had been gathering for longer than any of them had wanted to consider.

As they washed in the river while the village was burning to the ground, Bruce admitted that he didn’t know how long it had been for him, but it was evident by the sadness in his eyes that he knew it was far longer than any of them could tell.  The great bears had been legends some twenty years before Bucky and Steve had been born.

The heat had taken them all by surprise.  It wasn’t the season for it. The strike team had barely returned to the den when warmth had spread across Bucky’s face and weakness nearly took his knees out from under him.  The scent of in-season Omega had brought the exhausted crew a second wind in spite of their weariness.

Now, Bucky’s fingers curled tight into the furs under his fists.  His jaw went slack as Steve curled over his back and nipped along his shoulder.  Bucky didn’t know how long it had been since they’d come home. Heats were like that.  Hours bled into days without any real acknowledgement of the passing of time, save for when an Alpha would leave to gather food or supplies for their Omega.  Since Bucky’s food supply was  _ Steve _ , it had taken Bucky poking at him to go and get meat for himself… even though it had driven him mad with need.  But Steve was back, with enough meat and jerky to last him for another day, Bucky was settled, calmed.

“Minx,” Steve rumbled against the back, behind his ear, as he pushed in his cock deep, slow, and steady.  Bucky mewled in response, because it was so good. He was slick down the backs of his thighs, and he was up on his knees only by the furs piled up under his hips and chest.  Every joint in his body ached in a way that throbbed with every thrust, but reminded Bucky of what was happening.

Three and a half years ago, Bucky had lost his pups.  The trauma of his arm being twisted right off when the vampires had come for them… frankly, Bucky had been grateful at the time.  After everything the sadistic Zola had done to him, and Loki, and the others that hadn’t survived, his pups had been rescued from that fate.  They were not made into science projects.

And now?  Now, he had been given another chance.  The destruction of the master vampire and his infectious pets had lifted a weight.  It was as though the vampire purge had released the stopper that had kept Bucky from going into heat in the fall while he had been imprisoned.

Steve growled softly as he pressed his teeth into their bondmark and broke the skin.  It hadn’t been difficult. The skin was thin from the last day - two days? - of the flesh being opened and reopened. Steve barely had to apply pressure at all before the skin split.

Sighing happily, Bucky slumped into the furs and let his mind get lost to sensation.  It felt like Steve’s hands were everywhere, or perhaps his skin was just echoing the contact; a constant feedback of touch that kept Bucky floating around in pleasureland.  Steve pressed a smile behind his ear before lightly nipping at it, tugging the cartilage tenderly.

“My love, my Omega: everything that I am belongs to you.”

 

_The scene fades back to black, and the credits start once more._

 

_Lead Writer_  
[ Miss Aphi ](https://miss-aphi.tumblr.com)

_Concept Artwork_  
[ Cobalt Moony ](https://cobaltmoonysart.tumblr.com)

_Lead Editor_  
[ Nurse Darry ](https://www.archiveofourown.org/users/NurseDarry/pseuds/NurseDarry)

_Production_  
[ CapRBB ](https://capreversebb.tumblr.com)

 

_Soundtrack_

**Where The Wild Things Are** **  
**Preformed by Metallica  
Written by James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, and Jason Newsted  
From the album _Reload_  
Elektra, 1997

| 

**Closer** **  
**Preformed by Nine Inch Nails  
Written by Trent Reznor  
From the album _The Downward Spiral_  
Nothing  & Interscope, 1994

| 

**Bridge of Sighs**  
Preformed by Opeth  
Written by Robin Trower  
From the album _Watershed_  
Roadrunner, 2008  
  
---|---|---  
  
**Bulls on Parade**  
Preformed by Rage Against the Machine  
Written by Tim Commerford, Zack de la Rocha, Tom Morello, Brad Wilk  
From the album _Evil Empire_  
Epic, 1996

| 

**Bloody Waters**  
Preformed by Ab-Soul, Anderson Paak and James Blake  
Written by Duckworth, Spears, Robin Braun, Herbert Stevens IV,  & James Litherland  
From the Black Panther original soundtrack  
UMG, 2018

| 

**Of Wolf and Man**  
Preformed by Metallica  
Written by James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammet  
From the album _Metallica_  
Elektra, 1991  
  
**Bullet with Butterfly Wings**  
Preformed by The Smashing Pumpkins  
From the album _Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness_  
Written by Billy Corgan  
Virgin, 1995

| 

**Vampire Blues**  
Preformed by Neil Young  
Written by Neil Young  
From the album _On The Beach_  
Reprise, 1974

| 

**If I Was Your Vampire**  
Preformed by Marilyn Manson  
Written by Marilyn Manson, Tim Sköld  
From the album _Eat Me, Drink Me_  
Interscope, 2007  
  
 

This work of fiction is protected under the copyright laws of the United States and other countries throughout the world. Country of first publication: Canada. Any unauthorized exhibition, distribution, or copying of this film or any part thereof (including soundtrack) may result in civil liability and criminal prosecution.

The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred. No person or entity associated with this film received payment or anything of value, or entered into any agreement, in connection with the depiction of tobacco products.

Some animals were harmed in the making of this fiction.

 

_Briefly, the words fade, only to come up on a scene of a springtime meadow._

 

“Oh, no you don’t, you little rascal,” Bucky growled as he shifted as easy as flicking a match, from wolf to man.  He grabbed hold of the scruff of a fluffy bundle of greyish fur and hauled the petulant pup back into his chest.

The pup whined and gnawed harmlessly at his mother’s metal fingertips.  Bucky wiggled his thumb while Nate attempted to nurse at his thumb. Beneath his feet, the knee-high grass was depressed as he searched through the sheafs for the other two.  Steve’s head popped up ten feet to his left with one of the twins held gently by the nape in his teeth.

“Maggie?”  Bucky asked.  Steve rumbled from his throat and flicked his left ear back and forth to indicate _yes_.  Which just left Becca… somewhere.  

_Go sit down, my Omega. I’ll get her,_ Steve suggested, though they both knew it was a command as he padded over to hand off the squirming Maggie.  Bucky gathered the pair against his chest and leaned down to kiss Steve’s brow.

“Yes, Alpha,” he murmured softly, a lazy smile on his lips.  Steve had been the very picture of concerned mate and doting father since after Bucky’s unseasonal heat had come.  This time, rather than indicating Steve was fretting too much, Bucky let him. He let Steve fuss to his heart’s content.  Overfeeding him, walking right beside him as if Bucky might topple over even in the first month of his pregnancy when he wasn’t remotely showing or inhibited in his movements.  It had amused Bucky at first, and as time stretched on and he became fat and sore with growing new lives in his belly, yeah, he’d been a little emotional about it. This was how it should have been four years ago, but he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.  He had it now, and he would relish every moment, even the ones that hurt, or made him feel ill.

With Maggie and Nate cradled in his arms, Bucky moved to the wide trunk of a tree and perched on his red cloak, on a root that had decided to grow above the earth.  Leaning back against the trunk, Bucky easily juggled Nate, who had perched on the curve of his elbow, and Maggie, who was squirming around like she had ants in her fur.  The small meadow was peaceful, a small, private place that they sometimes escaped to when the den was loud or warm. It hadn’t changed since the first time Steve had brought him here to woo him into being his mate.  As if the stubborn Alpha had had to work hard to seduce the Omega that was already desperately in love with him.

A high-pitched yelp was cut off by a playful growl, and the tall grass rustled violently for a moment before going still.  A moment later, Steve’s head popped up, victorious and smug, with Becca in his jaw. The pup with matching cornsilk fur whined as Steve trotted towards Bucky and deposited her in his lap.

“My hero,” Bucky teased, dropping a kiss on Steve’s snout.  Once he leaned back, Nate tipped his head up to bump his tiny nose against Steve’s.  Steve appeared startled by the contact, but soon chuffed a bit at his boypup and leaned down to nuzzle him firmly.  Becca yawned wide and then snapped her teeth together sleepily.

_Looks as though we finally tired them out,_ Steve said, amused, as he snuffled along the tops of their pups’ heads.  Bucky hummed his agreement as he pressed back against the trunk once more, brushing his toes against Steve’s foreleg.

“Finally…” Bucky agreed with a salacious smile that immediately blew Steve’s pupils wide against blue irises.  Steve rumbled and immediately bumped his nose over Bucky’s, then down to sniff deeply along his scent glands. Bucky’s face rubbed into the softest fur along Steve’s brow, breathing him in just as deeply.  Steve smelled like fresh rain and fire, complimentary to Bucky’s scent, as if they’d always been intended for one another. The gods had been cruel to Bucky, but perhaps that had been the point. He was home, finally where he belonged.

~ =★= ~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The lying liar who lies has returned. Yes, Chapter 7 was not the end, but this is. :)
> 
> I hope you all have enjoyed this little adventure. Moony made a joke yesterday in the comments section of Chapter 7 about us being as bad as Marvel with the end credit scenes... and I just couldn't help myself by stylizing this chapter like an end credit run.
> 
> Yes, those are all songs that inspired some of the scenes, or helped me get over humps of writer's block.
> 
> Thanks so much to Moony for amazing artwork, for Darry and her endless support and Betaing, and to the CapRBB folks for organizing another fantastic year of artwork and fics.


End file.
